"I used to..."

[jazzbeans]

Hi,


I'm not quite sure how to say this. Is it "ものだった"?

食べたものだった = used to eat?

I wanted to say "I used to have a dream that gorrilas and pencils were chasing me"
夢をみたものだった = used to have a dream?

ゴリラと鉛筆に私を追いかけているの夢を見たものだった ?

I have no clue! Please help!!

Thanks!

[zakojanai]

Hi,


I'm not quite sure how to say this. Is it "ものだった"?

食べたものだった = used to eat?

I wanted to say "I used to have a dream that gorrilas and pencils were chasing me"
夢をみたものだった = used to have a dream?

ゴリラと鉛筆に私を追いかけているの夢を見たものだった ?

I know that ものだ　is one way to say "used to." I'm not sure whether there are other more appropriate ways to say it. However, I think there are a couple problems with the grammar in your sentence. You're definitely on the right track, though.

I think these are closer to being correct, but don't take my word for it. I would really like to hear from a native speaker or a more experienced speaker than myself. I understand ものだ　to imply a certain sense of nostalgia, so I'm not sure this construct is entirely appropriate. Anyway, here's my attempt.

ゴリラと鉛筆は私を追いかけている夢を見たものだ。

私はゴリラと鉛筆に追いかけられている夢を見たものだ。

[jazzbeans]

Yeah, my grammar sucks unfortunately.

Thank you very much for your help!

[Psy]

Aye, I can't offer a natural sentence because I'm not a native, but the ものだ/ものだった grammar does express a certain sense of reminiscence, though that reminiscence doesn't always have to be positive. However, an important difference is that （よく）あの公園を歩いたものだ would mean "I [often] walked through that park...", but if you changed the だ to だった, the added nuance is that whatever you used to do is now a bygone time-- something that will not return again.

（よく）あの公園を歩いたものだ (I often walked through that park...)
（よく）あの公園を歩いたものだった ([in bygone days] I often walked through that park... [a shame those days are gone])

That is my understanding, anyway. Hope it helps!

[zakojanai]

Thanks, that was very in"Psy"tful.

I wasn't aware of the difference between ものだ and ものだった. All the examples I saw just used ものだ. And I believe you, but do you have a source? I'd really like to read more about it.

Edit: This may have come off wrong. It really was insightful. I was just rolling my eyes at my own terrible joke.

[Psy]

Don't worry, I get 'yamete kudaPsy" all the time. All in good fun, right?

My original reference for this grammar is from nihongo2.com, which I've been studying my way through over the past 5 months.(just passed the 50% mark, yahoo!) As I've stated before on this forum, the writing and some of the example sentences seem a bit odd (by Chinese, for Chinese after all), but the overall points and nuances seem pretty solid insofar as my studies have taken me. As the grammar dictionary is no longer publicly available, here is the entry for ものだ:

「〜た‐ものだ」（口語形は「〜た‐もんだ」）は、例文１〜４のように、ほとんどの場合は過去を回想する表現となります。もし「〜た‐ものだった」と使ったときは、既に過ぎ去りもう戻ってこないという詠嘆を込めた表現になります。なお、「〜た‐ことがある」（→文型080）も過去の経験を述べますが、「〜た‐ことがある」は一回性のことですが、「〜た‐ものだ」は習慣性のことになります。
　　昔、この川で釣りをしたことがある。　　＜一回性＞
　　昔、（よく）この川で釣りをしたものだ。＜習慣性＞
　注意してほしいのは、例文５のように「〜た‐ものだ」の形が希に由来や理由・事情を説明することがあることで、どちらの意味かは文脈から理解するしかありません。

I'll offer a translation for this if anyone requests it, but I haven't the time just now.

[Javizy]

There are loads of examples on alc for "I used to". It seems to be a mix of plain-past, 前は、昔は、以前は、and ～たものだ.