Мы говорим «я только что пришёл» или «она только что позвонила», когда что‑то случилось минуту назад.

In this sentence, только что is a fixed expression meaning just now or have just.

So:

• я только что пришёл = I just arrived / I have just arrived
• она только что позвонила = she just called / she has just called

Word for word, только often means only, and что often means what/that, but together только что functions as one idiomatic time expression. It does not mean only what here.

Russian does not have a direct equivalent of the English present perfect in everyday grammar.

Instead of saying something like I have just arrived, Russian normally uses:

• a past tense verb
• plus a time expression such as только что

So:

• я только что пришёл literally uses past tense, but in natural English it is often translated as I’ve just arrived
• она только что позвонила can be translated as she has just called

This is very normal Russian usage.

Because Russian past tense agrees with the subject in gender and number.

• я только что пришёл = said by a male speaker
• я только что пришла = said by a female speaker
• она только что позвонила = feminine, because она is she
• он только что позвонил = masculine
• они только что позвонили = plural

So in the past tense, Russian verbs change according to gender/number, not according to person the way English does.

Yes.

That is an important point for English speakers: with я in the past tense, the form depends on the speaker’s gender.

• male speaker: я только что пришёл
• female speaker: я только что пришла

English does not do this, so it often feels unusual at first.

This is mainly about aspect.

Here the sentence is talking about a completed action that happened very recently, so Russian typically uses the perfective verb:

• прийти → пришёл / пришла
• позвонить → позвонил / позвонила

These forms present the action as a single completed event:

• just arrived
• just called

If you used the imperfective verbs instead, the meaning would change or sound less natural in this context:

• приходил suggests something more like came by / was coming / used to come, depending on context
• звонила can mean was calling, used to call, or simply focus less on the completed result

So after только что, Russian very often prefers the perfective when the action is a single finished event.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible.

These are all possible:

• Я только что пришёл.
• Я пришёл только что.
• Только что я пришёл. — possible, but more marked or context-dependent

The most neutral and common beginner pattern is:

• subject + только что + verb

So я только что пришёл is an excellent standard model.

Минуту назад means a minute ago.

The noun минута becomes минуту because it is in the accusative case. With expressions like назад meaning ago/back, Russian often uses an accusative time expression:

• минуту назад = a minute ago
• час назад = an hour ago
• неделю назад = a week ago

So минуту is just the grammatically correct form after this kind of time expression.

Not necessarily.

In this sentence it is being used loosely to mean very recently or a moment ago. It often does not need to be mathematically exact.

So the idea is:

• something happened just now
• maybe one minute ago
• maybe a very short time ago in general

It is similar to how English speakers sometimes say a minute ago without meaning exactly sixty seconds.

Because что-то is grammatically neuter singular, and the past tense verb agrees with it.

So:

• что-то случилось = something happened

Compare:

• что-то произошло
• что-то исчезло

All of these use a neuter singular past form because of что-то.

This is another example of Russian past tense agreement.

Because the particle -то is written with a hyphen in indefinite pronouns and adverbs.

Examples:

• что-то = something
• кто-то = someone
• где-то = somewhere
• как-то = somehow

So the hyphen is a spelling rule, not something special to this one sentence.

Мы говорим means we say.

In grammar explanations, Russian often uses мы говорим... когда... in the same way English teachers say we say ... when .... It is a general statement about usage, not necessarily about a specific group of people speaking right now.

So the full sentence means roughly:

• We say ... when something happened a minute ago

It is simply explaining when that Russian pattern is used.

Those are standard Russian quotation marks, often called guillemets.

So in printed Russian, you commonly see:

• «я только что пришёл»
• «она только что позвонила»

They work like English quotation marks, just with a different typographical style. In informal typing, people may also use regular straight quotes, but «...» is standard in formal Russian text.