Writing a letter in Japanese

[pubju]

Hey,

I'm trying to write a letter in Japanese. Like saying what I did during the week and stuff, using basic Japanese language. I'm just doing it to work on my grammar and learn new vocabulary ^^

I have lots of things in my letter, like introducing myself and how old I am (like all the basic stuff), but I would like to include more interesting things (watashi wa _____desu. watashi wa____desu watashi wa ____ desu. just sounds really boring in my opinion)

Anyways, can anyone help me? How can I say these things?

"We went to watch a movie, but it wasn't very good. It was boring."

I know how to say e.g. "私はえいがをみましょう" and 'but' is "でも" I think. I dunno if "げんきじゃありません" works though (for 'not good'?)

I also would like to say something like

"We went to London in a car. It took 6 hours to get there."

私はLondonにくらまでいきましょう。

:@

Thanksss

[chikara]

A couple of points.

Avoid over use of 私は. Once it is obvious that you are talking about yourself there is no need to start every sentence with 私は.

私 is "I" not "we". 私たち (私達) is "we".

げんき (元気) is "good" in the context of "good health" which a movie is unlikely to be. "Good" in this conext is よい (良い) or いい.

Not sure why you are using of the verb~ましょう conjugation. I would read みましょう as "let's see". "We went to see a movie but it wasn't very good. It was boring" would be 私達はえいがを見に行きました.でもよくなかったでした。つまらないです。

London is ロンドン

ロンドンにくらまで行きました。ロンドンまで６時間でした。

But I'm no expert so someone will probably add corrections to my corrections

[pubju]

thanks

im just using what I learnt in class to try and make sentences (hence the use of watashi all the time >.<). How can I say 'then...', like 'went to the cinema then went driving' .etc? perhaps it would be better than using watashi so much >.<

[jenl]

Have you studied the て-form at all yet?

eg. えいがを見て, ドライブしました。
( or maybe えいがを見てから,ドライブしました。)

A good verb to know for the "it took six hours" sort of sentences is かける, as in ６時間かけました.

[pubju]

Nope, we havnt done 'te' form in class yet

[Hyperworm]

Hoping I'm not wrong in saying these...

pubju: It should be くるま（車） not くらま

chikara: You have よくなかったでした, past tense twice; shouldn't this be よくなかったです? (or よくありませんでした)
I also get the feeling 面白い would work better than 良い here.

jenl: I think you mean かかる / かかりました?

[edited for misspelling of username -_-]

[jenl]

I think you're right there. Another one of those transitive/intransitive pairs I'm always mucking up.

[Kodama_30]

I'm a bit of a newbie, so don't take this as 100% without some clarification. But to answer your original question, here is what I came up with:

私たちは映画が見に行きましたけど面白くないです

わたしたしは　えいがが　みに　いきました　けど　おもしろくない　です

Would this by right? I've used the けど particle with the intent of expressing contradiction between the two clauses. I've also used 面白くない（not interesting) as a poster has already mentioned, as I too think it would be better in this situation that よくない（not good).

Hope this helps (if right of course )

[Yudan Taiteki]

You've got one particle mistake in there; see if you can spot it.

[Kodama_30]

Yudan Taiteki wrote:
You've got one particle mistake in there; see if you can spot it.

Are you referring to my post Yudan?

[Yudan Taiteki]

Yes.

[Kodama_30]

Yudan Taiteki wrote:
Yes.

Just checking If I were to take a guess at the incorrect particle that you mentioned; I'd go with the けど　being out of place. Should this be changed to the softer が, in order to conform to the politeness level of the sentence?

私たちは映画が見に行きましたが、面白くないです

[Hyperworm]

It's much simpler than that. You used が instead of を after 映画. が marks the subject, i.e. the doer of the verb, so by using が you've got the movie doing the watching. 映画 should be the object ("we went to watch the movie"), and therefore it should be marked by を.

[Kodama_30]

Hyperworm wrote:
It's much simpler than that. You used が instead of を after 映画. が marks the subject, i.e. the doer of the verb, so by using が you've got the movie doing the watching. 映画 should be the object ("we went to watch the movie"), and therefore it should be marked by を.

Ah, I see know, thanks for that.
Typical really though; Out of all the things in this sentence, I just had to mess up one of the easiest parts. :p

[chikara]

Hyperworm wrote:
Hoping I'm not wrong in saying these...

pubju: It should be くるま（車） not くらま

Doh

I read that as くるま even though it was くらま and cut and paste the same mistake.

Hyperworm wrote:
chikara: You have よくなかったでした, past tense twice; shouldn't this be よくなかったです? (or よくありませんでした)
I also get the feeling 面白い would work better than 良い here.

Thanks