# 他们刚下了飞机，小张<就>在机场等着他们



## L3P

各位好：

Can you translate the following sentence for me,please:
他们刚下了飞机，小张就在机场等着他们

Is it 'they just got off the plane and 小张 was waiting for them...'?


多谢。


----------



## Diana SUN

yes, xiaozhang was already waiting for them.


----------



## L3P

Thanks,Diana. What is the message of the sentence? Well,if it was without 刚,it just would be 'they got off and xiaozhang was already waiting for them' - it`s clear.But what does 刚 stress?


----------



## Diana SUN

it's like: *as soon as* they got off, xiaozhang was already waiting for them / they *just* got off and xiaozhang was already waiting for them/ *right after* they got off..

刚……就……we often use these two words together in order to stress " just done ... and ... is right after." 

for example:

我*刚*吃完晚饭，妈妈*就*让我去写作业。stressing that right after i ate my dinner, my mom asked me to do my homework.

小明*刚*下课，*就*要去上辅导班。

你不能*刚*吃完饭*就*去睡觉，这样对身体不好。

Don't know if this is clear to you or not?


----------



## L3P

Absolutely,Diana.Thanks a bunch.我知道了。


----------



## Diana SUN

pleasure


----------



## Skatinginbc

Let's have a second look at Dianna's examples: 
我*刚*吃完晚饭，妈妈*就...*
小明*刚*下课，*就*...
你不能*刚*吃完饭*就*...
Now compare them to the original sentence: 他们刚下了飞机，小张就...
What's the difference?  There is an extra 了 in the OP's sentence.  That extra 了 bugs me.


----------



## Diana SUN

^here the 了 is what we usually add (more often in oral chinese but in written chinese also)after the verb in order to stress the action is already been done.

so for all those examples i gave, we can add the 了 after the verb, the meaning will still remain the same.

我*刚*吃*了*晚饭，妈妈就……
小明*刚*下*了*课，就……
你不能*刚*吃完*了*饭就……


----------



## L3P

Skatinginbc said:


> There is an extra 了 in the OP's sentence.  That extra 了 bugs me.



On second thought,I find myself bugged by a different thing.Something`s off here.What I mean is the construction 刚。。。就。。。 as well as  一。。。就。。。implies a sequence of actions (action verbs),where action_verb2 follows action_verb1 only after the completion of action_verb1,the keyword here being 'completion',like 'as soon as I finished eating,mom made me go...', 'as soon as 小明 finished school,he went to...', 'it`s not good for health to have supper and to go bed at once',etc, while in the sentence at hand we don`t have such a sequence. What we do have is 'as soon as they got off the plane,小张 had already been waiting for them (for some time)',where verb2 is not an action verb,but a state one. Does that make 刚 appropriate and necessary here? To me 他们下了飞机，小张就在机场等着他们 already means that 小张想得周到 and had come some time before they arrived, don`t you think so?


----------



## Diana SUN

first i have to say chinese is really a very flexible language, sometimes it really does not have a regular partern, like i have to use what words to express what thing.

so here the 刚 is in order to stress out that 小张 is very thoughtful and ponctual, and yes you are right that without 刚 we can also know 小张 was already waiting at the airport, but with the 刚 we can fell more this feeling that he is very thoughtful.

For example, let's imagine a situation here, if we are now those people just got off the plane, when we done the tour in the city with the company of 小张 whole day and we want to write an e-mail to 小张's boss to thank him and 小张, if we write 我们刚下了飞机 with 刚, the boss will feel that 小张 did more impressive job than he thought, and will feel more satisfied with 小张's work. if we write without 刚, the boss will feel, ok, he did his work, no more other feeling is in these.

Don't konw if this is little bit clear or not..


----------



## L3P

Yes,Diana,that`s made things clearer. 谢谢你！


----------



## Diana SUN

pleasure!


----------



## Mamanunique

后面没有标点符号，说明这个句子并不完整。“了”字放在前面有点多余，把它放到“他们”后面，句子就通顺了。


----------



## Mamanunique

Skatinginbc said:


> Let's have a second look at Dianna's examples:
> 我*刚*吃完晚饭，妈妈*就...*
> 小明*刚*下课，*就*...
> 你不能*刚*吃完饭*就*...
> Now compare them to the original sentence: 他们刚下了飞机，小张就...
> What's the difference?  There is an extra 了 in the OP's sentence.  That extra 了 bugs me.



In the original sentence the 了 is redundant. if you move it to the end following  他们 then everything will be clear.


----------



## KK_Tse

The key element here is 就。
With 就，the action/event is always interpreted as "very early/soon after", regardless of the real time. For example:

1. 他昨天7点（9点、10点、12点...）就来到学校。
2. 他还没吃饭（吃了饭、吃了饭后半小时...）就去睡觉。

Of course, if the real time is "too lengthy" to be interpreted as "soon after", the sentence would sound very odd:

？？2a. 他吃了饭后三个小时就去睡觉。 

By the way, if you replace 就 with 才，the interpretation is almost the opposite ("very late").


----------

