talking about your day

[danfernold7261]

I am studying different kinds of sentence patterns, and I came upon one while wanting to post a facebook status update. I am talking about "I have had..." as in "I've had a good day" for example.

Now. I tried google translate, (which I first normally do) and I got the answer "私はよい日をもっていた" (for the example), but when I then try writing it in japanese it becomes "I had a good day" Why is that?

And finally (for now) is this the only way to say it, or there another way?

事前にありがとうございます

Dan Fernold

[ericf]

You don't really need the "I've" or "had" in Japanese (you don't "have" the day.) Just 今日は楽しかったです。will do. Or other adjectives as appropriate.

[danfernold7261]

Ok. Noted. どうもありがとう

But what about "I've had a good "noun" today?

じぜんにありがとうございます

Dan Fernold

[community.japanese]

Dan-san, エリックsan,
こんにちは
Brilliant advice as always, エリックsan; thank you very much!

Dan-san, there are phrases and patterns that we simply cannot translate literally into another language
and this is one of them. What we need is "transcreation", not translation.
In Japanese, when we want to say somthing like"I've had [adjective] [noun] today", it usually
starts with 今日は just like エリックsan's answer.
The problem is the rest of the sentence: I can't really give you the straight answer with fixed pattern
because it can vary depending on what you have in those square brackets [ ].

As to tense, "I've had" and "I had" when you refer to "today", it's simply the same in Japanese and that's probably
the reason why Google Translate couldn't give you the difference.

There's nothing wrong when we try our best to translate literally when we have limited knowledge about new
langauge (I myself do that, I'm sure). However, you need to accept how the new language works and learn it.
For instance, there are several different situations where you can imagine using the line "I've had a good day today",
right? If you write it as your status on facebook, it can be 今日はいい１日でした。 But if you say that line to someone
else, who you probably spent time with, it'd be better to use エリックsan's line: 今日は楽しかったです。

By the way, the very polite line "Thank you in advance" in English also is something we can't translate literally; I mean,
you can, but we don't say things in that way. Instead, we often say よろしくお願いします。 or just ありがとうございます。
without 事前に or any other words. Even if you don't write any of those lines in Japanese, it's also okay.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101,com

[danfernold7261]

Ok, I see.

So you talk about the day, in that example like "Today, good was" (kyou wa ii deshita) and with that said, then say what had happened and how it was?

arigatou gozaimasu

Dan Fernold

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
that's right!
We rather talk "about" today.
If you want to say it was a good day, "kyou wa ii ichinichi deshita" would be the most common way.
The past tense for "good" (ii desu) is "yokatta desu", not "ii deshita".
But without being specific "what" about today was good, it sounds a bit vague.
So, add "one day", which is "ichi nichi" and use the adjective "ii" to modify it: ii ichi nichi deshita

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

Ok, understood. I have a tendensy.for forgetting about -katta desu, but I'll work on drilling that into me.

ありがとうございます

Dan Fernold

P.S: I wrote "昨日はよかったですがねければなりません。おやすみなさい on my facebookstatus

D.S.

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
glad I could help!

So, what you wrote on your facebook means "yesterday was a good day, but I have to sleep. Good night"?
昨日はいい１日でした。もうねなければなりません。おやすみなさい。
I had a good day yesterday (lit. yesterday was a good day). It's already the time to sleep (lit. I have to
sleep already). Good night.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

It seems I missed a な and 今in my sentence here. typo. I did write them on facebook.

Dan Fernold

ところで

Was it right, the sentence? (aside from the typos)

[community.japanese]

Dan-san,
yes, your sentence was good
It just sounded a bit weird (the first part) because we can't know "what" was good.
That's why I corrected it as 昨日はいい１日でした instead of leaving it as 昨日はよかったです

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[danfernold7261]

Ok.

Doumo arigatou

Dan Fernold

[team.relationships]

Thank you!

Ofelia (オフェリア)
Team JapanesePod101.com