I was in his garage just twenty minutes ago

[EngLearner]

A mechanic has replaced a few parts in John's car. John has driven his car back home and put it in the garage. John's friend Peter is walking by John's garage when John notices him. They start talking. Peter then pays attention to John's car and says: "That's a nice car." John says to him:

Yeah, it's almost like new. The mechanic has replaced parts A and B. I was in his garage <only><just><just only> twenty minutes ago.

Are all three options acceptable in this case?

 

[Piscean]

Use 'just' or 'only', not both.

 

[EngLearner]

There's this text (this link):

Banking doesn't get much duller than in Japan. The biggest banks there treat the internet as if it had only just been discovered. Their customers are less likely to use mobile or online banking than are their peers in a number of other rich countries (see chart 1).

By analogy with the banking example, would it be correct to use "only just" in the example in post #1:

Yeah, it's almost like new. The mechanic has replaced parts A and B. I was in his garage only just twenty minutes ago.

Or does "only just" work with perfect tenses only (as in "I've only just finished my homework." etc.)?

 

[5jj]

By analogy with the banking example, would it be correct to use "only just" in the example in post #1:

Yeah, it's almost like new. The mechanic has replaced parts A and B. I was in his garage only just twenty minutes ago.

No. The two sentences are about different time-situations.

 

[jutfrank]

Or does "only just" work with perfect tenses only?

No, it works with any tense.

 

[EngLearner]

No, it works with any tense.

So "only just" works for you in this example:

Yeah, it's almost like new. The mechanic has replaced parts A and B. I was in his garage only just twenty minutes ago.

Right?

 

[jutfrank]

No, it doesn't work in that sentence. You can't use 'only just' to modify periods of time like 'twenty minutes ago'. You use it to modify actions:

I only just arrived like twenty minutes ago.
We've only just begun!
Even if you left right now, you'd still only just make it.
I'm only just getting home now.