cái
ability; talent; gift; endowment
我还没有吃饭，才刚起床。
wǒ hái méiyǒu chīfàn, cái gāng qǐchuáng.
I haven't eaten yet, I just woke up.
他不仅学习好，而且才艺双全。
tā bùjǐn xuéxí hǎo, érqiě cáiyì shuāngquán.
He is not only good at studying, but also has many talents.
这件事才发生不久，你应该还记得。
zhè jiàn shì cái fāshēng bùjiǔ, nǐ yīnggāi hái jìde.
This incident just happened not long ago, you should still remember it.
笨 (bèn)
stupid
愚蠢 (yúchǔn)
foolish
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The Chinese character 才 (cái) is composed of two parts: the radical 艹 (cǎo), which represents grass or plants, and the phonetic component 才 (cái), which is a simplified form of the character 栽 (zāi), meaning "to plant." The combination of these two components suggests the idea of "growing" or "sprouting," which is the original meaning of the character.Over time, the meaning of 才 has expanded to include a wide range of related concepts, such as "ability," "talent," "skill," and "accomplishment." It can also be used as an adverb to mean "just," "only," or "recently." In addition, 才 is often used in combination with other characters to form compound words, such as 人才 (réncái, "talent"), 天才 (tiāncái, "genius"), and 本领 (běnlǐng, "skill").The character 才 is pronounced "cái" in Mandarin Chinese and "choi" in Cantonese. It is a common character in both modern and classical Chinese, and it is also used in Japanese and Korean.
