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I need some advice, trying something sweet

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jj0304957076
New in Town
Posts: 9
Joined: November 29th, 2013 12:03 pm

I need some advice, trying something sweet

Postby jj0304957076 » December 3rd, 2013 5:03 pm

Konnichiwa minna, ogenki desu ka?

I hae a question to anybody that can answer I appreciate it greatly.

I'm talking to my girlfriend in Japan, and I want to make a nice little introduction on the phone, say "Goodmorning beautiful, how are you today, and then her name after. How would I say this exactly? None of my friends at the community college I go to know how to say it properly, so I turned to all of you wonderful people

R3belD0gg
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 34
Joined: October 20th, 2013 11:43 pm

Re: I need some advice, trying something sweet

Postby R3belD0gg » December 8th, 2013 5:37 pm

I'm still very much a beginner, and hopefully someone else will chime in with something better but I think this would get the point across:

おはようきれいな人。  お元気ですか?
おはよう きれい な ひと。 おげんき です か? 
ohayou, kirei  na hito. O-genki desu ka?
Good morning, beautiful person. Are you well?

Probably a bit clunky... 人 (hito, person) can be replaced with her name, I would think. Not sure how elegant it is, though lol. You obviously already know お元気ですか, so maybe you would try

今日 は 元気 です か?
きょうは げんきでし か?
kyou wa genki desu ka?
Today well be ?
Are you well today?

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, まだ勉強します。 Just threw out an answer because I saw no one else did. 頑張ってね!

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community.japanese
Expert on Something
Posts: 2704
Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: I need some advice, trying something sweet

Postby community.japanese » December 15th, 2013 9:06 am

jj0304957076-san, R3belD0gg-san,
kon'nichiwa :D
Thank you for your help, R3belD0gg-san :flower:

If this is for your girlfriend, I think casual way is better and sound more lovely.
Although this kind of sweet sentences could sometimes sound cheeky or "not very Japanese"...
I'm probably not the best person to suggest sweet Japanese sentences because I don't like hearing "translated
Japanese" sounding sunny or cheeky. I don't think I'd often hear "my dear Natsuko" in Japanese either.
This is simply the difference of culture; it doesn't mean we don't appreciate it, but it hasn't been the part
of our culture until foreign cultures came into Japan. Japanese language is not created for such expressions.

That being said, how about:
おはよう、いとしの[name]ちゃん。よくねむれた?
Ohayou, itoshi no [name]-chan. Yoku nemureta?)
Literally, it's like "Morning, (my) dearest [name]-chan. Did you sleep well?"
We don't ask 元気? (Genki?) often to closest people like family or girlfriend/boyfriend.
Instead, asking her if she slept well would be nice. If we ask, for example, 気分はどう?(kibun wa dou?)
or 具合はどう?(guai wa dou?), it'd sound like she was sick the day before and you're worried about her.
If you use the wrong word like きげんはどう?(kigen wa dou?), it sounds like she was not in the good mood
(angry, more probably) and you're asking if she's feeling better. But of course, such question could make
her angry again if she was actually mad at you the day before :lol:

I've got a basic questions:
does your girlfriend know that you speak Japanese?
Do you usually use some simple greetings in Japanese or do you usually use only English?
Does she appreciate (or like) sweet expressions like you wrote in English?
Do you think she likes being called by "beautiful", "pricess", or any lovely words?

If she's one of those who likes English sweet expressions, I think you should use them even if the rest of
what you say is in Japanese. For example, おはよう、beautiful.(Ohayou, beautiful) :wink:
This way, you can avoid "impossible implement in Japanese" and sound natural using Japanese!

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

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