才 — Adverb before the verb: the action holds back until a prior event or condition is met, and arrives only then, later than a listener would expect.

TSUMUGU · TBCL 3 (est.) · 語法

才 grammar point · tier 1 · 才 lateness (only then, not until)

· cái

Adverb before the verb: the action holds back until a prior event or condition is met, and arrives only then, later than a listener would expect.

字源 FORM what the parts do

A single shoot through the ground-line (一), borrowed for the just-begun feel: only now, only just. 才 sits before the verb and holds it back until what comes first has happened.

故事 STORY a scene to remember it by

A sprout stays under the soil; the ground has to soak through first, and only then does the tip break the surface, no sooner.

字源記憶法

框 · Frame

[event A] [subj] 才 [verb B]

觸 · Trigger

The action is held off until a condition clears, and comes later than expected once it does.

序 · The move

1Place the condition or first event the action waits on.Is there something that must happen before the action will come?

2Put 才 right before the second verb, after its subject.Does 才 sit before the verb, not before the subject?

3Read it back for lateness.Does the action arrive later than a listener expects, only after the condition clears, and not before?

例 · Examples

1他看了報告後after reading the report才only then同意agree with醫生的說法the doctor's account。

Only after reading the report did he agree with the doctor's account.

界 · Boundary

就1

才 says later than expected, the step still held back until the condition clears; 就 says sooner than expected, the step already taken. Same two events, flipped on the early/late axis.

V了1

了 closes a finished action; 才 sits before the verb and marks it as held back, arriving later than expected. 了 reports that it happened; 才 reports how late it was.

他看了報告後就同意。 (reads as prompt agreement, sooner than expected) → 他看了報告後才同意。 (held back until he had read it)

他才看了報告後同意。 (才 stranded before the first event) → 他看了報告後才同意。 (才 sits before the verb it holds back, after the condition)

等很久就來了。 → 等很久才來了。 (a long wait, then arrival later than hoped = 才, not 就)

English 'only then' / 'not until' float at the front of the clause; 才 is fixed before the verb and inside the second clause, never standing alone at the front.

族 · Family

才…就…The first event has barely begun when the second already follows: the short gap reads as sooner than expected.才Marks the second clause as reached only after the first is met: the result is later, harder, or smaller than one might expect.才Adverb before the verb: the action has only just happened, barely a moment back, with the next event riding in right on its heels.才Sits before a quantity to mark it as small, low, or short of what was expected: only, merely.才Sits before the verb to drive the speaker's own stance down hard against what was assumed or said, frequently sealed by 呢 at the end.