湯姆一打開電視,保險絲就燒了。

No sooner had Tom turned on the TV than the fuse blew.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 湯姆 Tāng Tom (name)
2 一打 dozen
3 kāi
  1. to open (transitive or intransitive)
  2. (of ships, vehicles, troops etc) to start
  3. to turn on; to put in operation; to operate; to run
  4. to boil
  5. to write out (a prescription, check, invoice etc)
  6. (directional complement) away; off
  7. carat (gold)
  8. abbr. for Kelvin, 开尔文 Kāiěrwén
  9. abbr. for 开本 kāiběn, book format
4 電視 diànshì television; TV

classifiers: ,

5 保險絲 bǎoxiǎn
  1. fuse wire
  2. (electrical) fuse
6 jiù
  1. (after a suppositional clause) in that case; then
  2. (after a clause of action) as soon as; immediately after
  3. (same as 就是 jiùshì) merely; nothing else but; simply; just; precisely; exactly
  4. only; as little as
  5. as much as; as many as
  6. to approach; to move towards
  7. to undertake; to engage in
  8. (often followed by zhe) taking advantage of
  9. (of food) to go with
  10. with regard to; concerning
  11. (pattern: jiù ... ...) even if ... still ...
  12. (pattern: ... jiù ...) if not ... then must be ...
7 shāo
  1. to burn
  2. to cook
  3. to stew
  4. to bake
  5. to roast
  6. to heat
  7. to boil (tea, water etc)
  8. fever
  9. to run a temperature
  10. (coll.) to let things go to one's head
=8 le
  1. (completed action marker)
  2. (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)
  3. (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)
=8 liǎo
  1. to finish
  2. (used with or after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了 wàngbuliǎo "cannot forget")
  3. (literary) (usually followed by a negative such as or ) completely (not); entirely (not); (not) in the least
  4. to understand clearly (variant of liǎo)
=8 liǎo
  1. (of eyes) bright
  2. clear-sighted
  3. to understand clearly
=8 liào unofficial variant of liào