才念小学一年
I don’t fully understand the following sentence:
他才念小学一年级,只学过加法,还没学除法。
He + not until / only when + study + elementary school + first grade, only + studied + addition, still + not + study + division
My attempt at translating:
"Not until you will have been in elementary school’s first grade, will you know addition, not yet division."
It’s the 才 part that confuses me, because the sentence is not coherent in terms of continuity. To my ears the sentence would sound better without 才. (I’d use 才 when the last sentence would be positive, not negative (还没学)).
Can someone help me understand 才 in this sentence?