(gāng gāng) - just now, a moment ago in Mandarin
gānggāngTraditional: 剛剛
Translation
just now, a moment ago
Word origin
A reduplication of 刚 (gang) 'just', a phono-semantic compound with the 刂 'knife' radical and 冈 phonetic. Doubling intensifies the sense to 'just now, only a moment ago'.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 刚 (gang) reduplicated; 刚 = 刂 (knife radical) + 冈 (phonetic)
Stroke order
刚
刚
Examples
。
He just called a moment ago.
？
What did you just say?
。
I just got home.
。
He has just stepped out of the office.
。
He just came back.
刚刚 (gāng gāng) means just now or a moment ago, indicating that something happened very recently. It is interchangeable with 刚 (gāng) alone, but the reduplicated form is slightly more emphatic or expressive and more common in speech. It typically precedes the verb it modifies. Unlike English just, 刚刚 always refers to the immediate past, not a future event.
Used in
Grammar articles
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