# I hope you had a good day off



## Durnett

I’ve really been struggling to find any answers online. Below are a few translations based on some suggestions that I found, but I’m not sure that any of them match the meaning of “I hope you had a good day off” or if any of them is something a Japanese person would say in the same situation even if the literal meaning is different.
I’m so stuck.
1)いい休日だったでしょう。I found this one but it sounds like “I’m assuming it was a good day off” to me instead of “I hope”

2)いい休日だったことを願っています。I’m not sure if this is too literal.

3)休日はよかったら嬉しいです。I’m worried that this sounds too strong

4)休日に楽しむといいな I’m worried that といいな　is too informal and sounds envious of them vs hoping they had a good time.


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## Contrafibularity

I would say none of the four in a similar situation, though I don't quite understand what kind of situation you are talking about.  Are you sending an email or a short message? Are you sending it to your friend or your colleague?

It entirely depends on the level of formality or intimacy you want to convey, but at the beginning of a formal email I would say something like いかがお過ごしでしょうか or お休みのところ失礼します.  I (and I believe other Japanese people too) don't customarily hope that someone _had_ a good day off, though I do hope someone _has_ a good day off.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Durnettさんは

「○○様には、良い休日を過ごされたことと思います。」
「○○様には、（きっと）良い休日を過ごされたことと存じます。」
「○○様におかれましては、（きっと・さぞや）素敵な休日を過ごされたことと存じ上げます。」
「○○さんはやっと取れた休暇で日ごろの疲れを少しでも癒すことができたのはないかと拝察申し上げます。」
or
「週末はいかがお過ごしでしたでしょうか。」
「休日はいかがお過ごしでしたでしょうか。」と質問形で書くタイプ

的なヤツで、週明けとか、休日明けの文脈で用いるのだと思います。

この手の言い方は日本語でも言う場合がありはするけど、これってひょっとしたら、伝統的な日本語ではなくて、明治以降の英語の直訳体からきている表現なのかもしれないぞと思いました。

Contrafibularityさんのおっしゃるように、文脈や背景が非常に重要で、それによって、どのくらいのフォーマル度にするとか、どのくらいこなれた日本語になるのか、とかが決まると思いました。
​

［ビジネス英語］メールで挨拶と自己紹介するときの例文 - [起業家・英語漬け・子育て支援]コンセプトシェアハウス専門会社[東京、横浜、京都、福岡]

Weblio和英辞書 -「あなたは良い休暇を過ごされたことと思います。」の英語・英語例文・英語表現


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## Contrafibularity

「良い休日を過ごされたことと思います。」やその他の類似表現は、私の耳にはいかにも英語から翻訳したような文章で、少し押し付けがましいように聞こえます。あまり慣習的に使われていないのではないかと思うのですがどうでしょうか。「良い休日をお過ごしください。」なら自然に聞こえるのですが。


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## SoLaTiDoberman

御意！

日本語で聞いたこと（読んだこと）はある表現なのですが、あまり慣習的には使われていないと思います。
(thank you in advance!ほどの押しつけがましさではないと思いますが）少し押しつけがましい、というのも同感です。だから、Webioにあった「あなたは良い休暇を過ごされたことと思います」は完全にバツであり、あなたに「おかれましては」とか、「ことと存じ上げまつり候」とか、なんとか謙譲表現をかますか、あるいは質問形にして断定を避けるなど、押しつけがましさを緩和するための工夫が必要だと感じました。

「良い休日をお過ごしください。」は文末のあいさつであり、全くＯＫであるのも御意のとおりであります。
文頭のあいさつに持ってきて、過去の事、つまりは良い休日であったか悪い休日であったかは実際は確定していることに対して、良い結果であったことを期待しています、というのは、やはりちょっとヘンですよね。

4月に友達に「入学試験の結果はどうでしたか。○○さんのことだからきっと合格してカレッジライフを満喫しておらられることと思います。」的なことを言うには、実際は事前に相手が合格していることを第三者からの情報で確認できている場合じゃなければ危険すぎますよね。

同様に、相手が休日を満喫して、病気など大過なく休日明けに出勤している、という情報を第三者から得ていた文脈ならば、
「久しぶりの休暇はいかがでしたか。大変お忙しい○○さんが、少しでも体を休めることができたなら私も大変うれしく存じます。」的な感じなら、アリじゃないでしょうか。やはり不自然？


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## Durnett

お二人の返信に感謝します🙏

私が提案した翻訳を使わなくてよかったですね。　文脈を提供するのを忘れてごめんなさい。　私の地域では誰とでも友達のように話すんです。だからI hopeを友達に言うと思いていました。

直訳ではないから絶対それらの翻訳を考えつかないと思います。ありがとうございます🙏
しかし、　その表現でも少し珍し過ぎるなら「Xはいかがでしたか」をだけ使うかましれません。

I can see how it might seem weird to hope for something when it's already happened, but the way I see it is like this:

If your favorite sports team is playing you can hope that they win.   You exist in the state of wanting to hear that they won.   Now if you miss the game you are still wanting to hear that they won.  You hope that someone will tell you good news.  "I hope you had a good day" is like "I've been wanting to hear the good news come out of your mouth. I hope you tell me good news because you matter to me"

I 100% don't think that "thank you in advance!" is required here.
Not saying thank you afterward is off putting in my opinion though.  Tbh, I was put off by that comment. I was halfway through writing this and wanted to tell you guys "thank you for saving me" and I'm still grateful, but now I kind of never want to come back here.   
"I'm so stuck,  what do I do here?"
--"Don't you think you should say thank you in advance first?"
That's pretty darn rude.   First time in the Japanese forums after the Spanish ones and this happens.   Just a culture difference I hope.


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## Contrafibularity

Durnett said:


> I 100% don't think that "thank you in advance!" is required here.


I'm afraid you misunderstood what's been said in Japanese.  Nobody insisted your saying "Thank you in advance."  From what I see, everyone has been polite enough here. 



Durnett said:


> If your favorite sports team is playing you can hope that they win. You exist in the state of wanting to hear that they won. Now if you miss the game you are still wanting to hear that they won. You hope that someone will tell you good news. "I hope you had a good day" is like "I've been wanting to hear the good news come out of your mouth. I hope you tell me good news because you matter to me"


I understand what you mean, and I do hope good things happen or happened to the ones I'm close with.  What I meant to say was I don't usually "hope" in an email or a text message the way you do.  In other words, my hoping someone had a good day off requires a much higher level of intimacy than yours.   THIS is just a culture difference, I guess.


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## Durnett

Ok,  I’m sorry SoLaTiDoberman.  I now see the だから starting the next sentence, I should have clued in. Thank you both for taking so much time to help me.  I guess I was struggling to find translated versions of “hope” used this way because other expressions are the way to go.    You both saved me so much time, I didn’t know what else to do. thank you 🙏


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## Cowrie

Hi Durnett,


Durnett said:


> 友達に言うと思いていました。





Durnett said:


> 「Xはいかがでしたか」をだけ使う


If you are thinking to say it to your friend, Xはどうだった？ is more likely. You can add よかった？, 楽しかった？, or 勝った？, depending on the situation.

I agree with Contrafibularity and SoLaTiDoberman in that we do not have the exact equivalent of  "I hope you had a good day off" in Japanese.


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## gengo

Durnett said:


> I hope you had a good day off



As you surely know, speaking a foreign language isn't about translating the words of your native language, and is instead about using the words that a native would use to convey the same idea, or use in the same situation.

When we say this English phrase, we aren't literally hoping for something; we are just being friendly and polite.  We are opening a conversation by mentioning that the other person had a day off, and we are indicating our interest in hearing about it.  In such a situation, a Japanese might say something like:

休日、楽しかった？
休日はどうだった？
休日、何か面白いことでもあった？
etc.

"To hope" in general is a difficult verb to translate into Japanese, and you will find that a natural translation is often quite different from the English phrase.


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## Durnett

Thank you everyone.  You’re right, and I do like using the 良かった？etc. questions. To me at least it sounds like I’m eager to hear good news from them which matches the point of “I hope (you had fun)/(the surgery went well)!” etc.  It’s so simple in hindsight.  Obviously way better than what I was able to come up with.  thanks again, as I has no other resources to turn to🙏


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## SoLaTiDoberman

(I would try to write the general concept of #5 in English because the Japanese explanation did not work. But this is only the part about "thank you in advance.")

One of the most offensive and rude expressions for Japanese people are "あらかじめ、ありがとう！" as a direct translation for "thank you in advance" in English.
In Japanese culture, it would definitely sound very rude. When I read "Thank you in advance!" for the first time, I thought, "You are very demanding to say such an appreciation beforehand. It is equivalent that you force me to do something. But it's up to me to help you or not. After hearing such a rude thing to say appreciation beforehand, I'd like to react to ignore to help you instead, which makes your appreciation remarks in vain. Good for me, and bad for you! Goodbye!" or something like that.
Of course, it is a matter of cultural difference, but "thank you in advance" is something that Japanese people would never say in their traditional way of thinking in Japanese.
It should be "よろしくお願い致します" instead.

Likewise, the direct translation for “I hope you had a good day off” would become a little rude for Japanese people, I thought. I agreed with Contrafibularity.
If I read it, I would feel, for example:
"Why can you hope about my past event which already happened? That's none of your business. Just leave me alone. Why do you say such weird remarks that don't make sense? You may hope my future being good instead. But you cannot hope for something that already happened! It's too late, right? I think you're illogical to say such a thing."  or something like that.

These are examples, and I myself have no intention to offend you now.

What I wanted to say is that:
_According to the cultural differences, the direct translation for some expressions (including this one) would not work well, or even makes matters worse. 
Therefore, you might as well give up translating that expression and think about some other alternative expressions.

However, if we stick to make a sentence in which we hope something that happened in the past, I would suggest something this........_


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## Durnett

Wow, I didn’t know that the direct translation of “thank you in advance” (to be honest that’s why I dislike using it in English, even though it’s common enough) and the direct translation of “I hope you had…” could be similarly rude, but the “my past is none of your business” aspect makes sense.     Sorry again for my lack-lustre Japanese skills.    I know how long it takes me to write sentences in Japanese so I appreciate however long it took to put that into English for me.


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