Time Adverbs: 刚、还、忽然、一直、已经

Chinese grammar · HSK 2 · 时间副词 · By Carson 木林森

These adverbs go before the verb (or adjective) they modify.

刚 gāng hard 还 hái still 忽然 hū rán suddenly; all of a sudden 一直 yī zhí straight (in a straight line) 已经 yǐ jīng already

刚 (gāng) = just now, just did something recently
还 (hái) = still, continuing a state
忽然 (hū rán) = suddenly, unexpected change
一直 (yī zhí) = all along, continuously
已经 (yǐ jīng) = already, completed before now

Word order: Subject + time adverb + verb/adj

✅ 他刚到家。(He just got home.)
✅ 她还在睡觉。(She is still sleeping.)
✅ 我已经吃了。(I already ate.)

Worked examples

Chinese	Pinyin	English	What it shows
我刚喝了一杯水。	Wǒ gāng hē le yī bēi shuǐ.	I just drank a glass of water.	刚 before verb shows the action happened very recently
他一直很忙，没有时间休息。	Tā yī zhí hěn máng, méi yǒu shí jiān xiū xi.	He has been busy all along and has no time to rest.	一直 + adjective shows a continuous state
我们已经到学校了，老师还没来。	Wǒ men yǐ jīng dào xué xiào le, lǎo shī hái méi lái.	We have already arrived at school; the teacher still hasn't come.	已经 and 还没 contrast completed vs. ongoing state

Produce this pattern without stopping to think about it. GraphChinese drills Time Adverbs across 13 exercises and schedules the review that keeps it.

What you need first

Every topic in GraphChinese names its own prerequisites, and these are the grammar points this one is built on. If a sentence here will not parse, one of them is why.

Time Expressions as Adverbials

The same pattern at other levels

Time Adverbs — HSK 3
Time adverbs — HSK 4
Time Adverbs — HSK 5

Time Adverbs is one topic of 829. GraphChinese teaches them in prerequisite order, so this pattern reaches you on the day everything it rests on is proven. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.

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