# late lunch



## yuechu

Hello/大家好,

I'm trying to translate the following sentence into Chinese:
"I had a late lunch today."
(Quite a simple sentence actually, but one that I am having a bit trouble with... )

Here's my attempt: "我今天晚一点吃午饭了". Would this be correct/the same way as you would translate it?

Thanks/谢谢！


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## xiaolijie

I'd say almost the same thing, baosheng: 
"我今天晚一点吃了午饭"
(You'll have seen that the 了 in my sentences is at a different position, but this may be simply a reflection of the different ways we visualize the context of the sentence)


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## yuechu

Thanks for your reply, xiaolijie!
Does the position of the 了 change the meaning in the sentence? Since I haven't studied much Chinese grammar before, I must admit that I do not understand much about "了" (and tend to put it in seemingly random places.. )


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## kareno999

baosheng said:


> Hello/大家好,
> 
> I'm trying to translate the following sentence into Chinese:
> "I had a late lunch today."
> (Quite a simple sentence actually, but one that I am having a bit trouble with... )
> 
> Here's my attempt: "我今天晚一点吃午饭了". Would this be correct/the same way as you would translate it?
> 
> Thanks/谢谢！


我今天午饭吃的晚 (not sure which one is correct, 的/地/得) 
我今天午饭吃的比平时晚 (My lunch was late than usual today)
or
我今天很晚(才)吃的午饭 (I had a very late lunch today)

vs

我今天晚一点吃午饭(I'm gonna have a late lunch today)


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## yuechu

@kareno999
Oh, it looks like I was mixing up past and future, right? (晚一点 referring to the future?)
Your answers sound like exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, kareno999!!


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## xiaolijie

"晚一点" does not necessarily refer to the future. I used the same in my sentence in post #2 but the sentence clearly refers to the past
(And consider also: 我今天晚一点吃饭，所以现在不能再吃了。). 
All I can tell is the "了" in your original sentence seems to be in an unusual position to me, but we need native speakers' informed view on this.


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## viajero_canjeado

kareno999 said:


> 我今天午饭吃的晚 (not sure which one is correct, 的/地/得)
> 我今天午饭吃的比平时晚 (My lunch was late than usual today)
> or
> 我今天很晚(才)吃的午饭 (I had a very late lunch today)
> 
> vs
> 
> 我今天晚一点吃午饭(I'm gonna have a late lunch today)



Good suggestions, 可是上面那個用紅色寫的『的』是否一個typo呢? 對了，你第一句，官方應該是用『得』吧： 類似吃得少，打得好，弄得亂七八糟等句型。


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## Ghabi

No, it's not a typo I believe. The structure is very common (and not a recent innovation), but perhaps not used in Taiwan? For example, 我是昨天買的票=我是昨天買票的 etc.


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## jennyjq

About the usage of “的、地、得”，generally, there is a rule:
的：adj. + 的+ n.
地：adv. +地+ v.　
得：v. + 得+ adv.
But if you're not sure, you can just replace them with “的”. Some textbooks no longer emphasize those differences in recent years.


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## kareno999

xiaolijie said:


> "晚一点" does not necessarily refer to the future. I used the same in my sentence in post #2 but the sentence clearly refers to the past
> (And consider also: 我今天晚一点吃饭，所以现在不能再吃了。).
> All I can tell is the "了" in your original sentence seems to be in an unusual position to me, but we need native speakers' informed view on this.


Actually "我今天晚一点吃了午饭" sounds a bit awkward. Usually "晚一点" uses the current time as a reference point and is better translated as "later".


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## xiaolijie

kareno999 said:


> Actually "我今天晚一点吃了午饭" sounds a bit awkward. Usually "晚一点" uses the current time as a reference point and is better translated as "later".


That may be true (but as already posted, "晚一点" does not always refer to the future). My intention here was only trying to improve the original sentence ("我今天晚一点吃午饭了") without changing it too much.


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## yuechu

Thanks everyone for your replies! (and also for pointing out the nuance with "晚一点", + the "的" structure)


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## xiaolijie

Baosheng, still without wanting to change too much of your original, I think this sentence: "我今天午饭吃晚了一点" would improve it a bit. For some reason, the 了 doesn't feel very settled at the end of your sentence.


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## bubokribuck

我今天晚了吃午飯。
It really is just a simple sentence, no need to make it sound so complicated.


Also, it's very unnatural to use 晚一點 in past-tense sentences, because that word is mostly used for current or future events.
我晚一點吃飯 = I'll have the meal later.
我晚一點吃飯了 = ??? (this sentence doesn't really make any sense, however, "我晚了一點吃飯" is perfectly fine)



About the usage of "的，得，地", it sometimes can get very confusing (but Cantonese speakers will never have such problems). Anyway, the following should be the correct ones:
1. 我今天午飯吃“得”晚
2. 我今天午飯吃“得”比平時晚
3. 我今天很晚才吃“的”晚飯
In (1) and (2), 吃 is a verb and so should be followed by "得"; in (3), "吃的" serves as an adjective of "晚飯", and so "的" is used.​


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## xiaolijie

bubokribuck said:
			
		

> 我今天晚了吃午飯。
> It really is just a simple sentence, no need to make it sound so complicated.


It's not necessarily easy to come up with simple sentences when you're just learning 



> Also, it's very unnatural to use 晚一點 in past-tense sentences, because that word is mostly used for current or future events.
> 我晚一點吃飯 = I'll have the meal later.


This is already acknowledged in the above, but if you like, here are examples of 晚一點 used in a different sense for you:
你没有必要因我每次回家稍晚一点就发脾气。你不认为我应该可以在外面待晚一点吗？ 



> 我晚一點吃飯了 = ??? (this sentence doesn't really make any sense, however, "我晚了一點吃飯" is perfectly fine)


This is what the post immediately above yours just said!  



> About the usage of "的，得，地", it sometimes can get very confusing (but Cantonese speakers will never have such problems). Anyway, the following should be the correct ones:
> 1. 我今天午飯吃“得”晚
> 2. 我今天午飯吃“得”比平時晚


This is also already covered. Please see post #7 & #9.



> 3. 我今天很晚才吃“的”晚飯
> in (3), "吃的" serves as an adjective of "晚飯", and so "的" is used.


No, that won't do, because that would make "吃的晚飯" a noun-phrase in this sentence. But as you may know, 才 cannot be followed by a noun-phrase: 很晚才吃的晚飯. The “的” here should be explained in terms of the "是...的" structure. This structure is actually discussed HERE, and you're very welcome to add something new to it .


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## kareno999

> 我晚了一點吃飯


 is a good one.


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