How would you say the following English phrase...

I wrote a quick report about the Italian movie 'Life is Beautiful' and wanted to say the following:

"The father didn't want his son getting sad so he told him that the place was a big game."

The part I want to focus on is "the father didn't want his son getting sad..." In Japanese, I wrote it the following way: お父さんは息子が悲しくなることを欲しくなかったので「ここは大きなゲームだよ」と言いました。

My Japanese teacher said it didn't really make sense, but it took her ages to try and figure out a proper way to express it (probably because she didn't want to use grammar that I didn't understand). The best she came up with was:

お父さんは息子が悲しくならないために「ここは大きなゲームだよ」と言いました。

I guess this roughly translates to "in order for the son to not become sad, the father said the place was a big game".

Anyway, I'm just interested to know what other ways there are to say the same sort of phrase. I also have to figure out a way to separate 'I want' in English and the 'hoshiis and ~tais' in Japanese as obviously they're not directly interchangable.

hmmm. I was thinking お父さんは息子がかなしくならないように、「ここは大きいゲームです。」と言いました。

But I am not sure ～ように works here. maybe more of a "in order to prevent the son from becoming sad." blah blah blah....

Damicci said:

hmmm. I was thinking お父さんは息子がかなしくならないように、「ここは大きいゲームです。」と言いました。
But I am not sure ～ように works here. maybe more of a "in order to prevent the son from becoming sad." blah blah blah....

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お父さんは息子に悲しくなって欲しくなかったので、「ここは大きなゲームだよ」と言いました。

I think makes sense....how natural sounding it comes across I'm not as sure.
Perhaps ように is workable as well.

the father didn't want his son getting sad...

For "to want someone ( )", you can say
～に（ ）てほしい
～に（ ）てもらいたい

I might translate the above:
お父さんは息子に悲しい気持ちになってほしくなかったので
お父さんは息子に悲しんでほしくなかったので
お父さんは息子に悲しんでもらいたくなかったので

so he told him that the place was a big game.

For me, ここは大きなゲームだよ sounds a bit awkward, because ここ is pronoun to indicate a place while ゲーム is not a noun meaning a place.
But then, what is better expression...?


My poor attempt is:
これは大きなゲームなんだよ
これはすごいゲームなんだよ
ここは大きな遊び場なんだよ
これはすごい遊びなんだよ

None of the above is "loyal" to the original sentence, but I want to convey the idea in a way that sounds most natural....

(Hope someone would come up with better translation!

お父さんは息子に悲しんでほしくなかったので
お父さんは息子に悲しんでもらいたくなかったので

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Oh, really ? I usually interpose で and て endings to create
悲しくって（くなって）欲しくなかったので、
悲しく（なら）ないで欲しかったので

Are these both incorrect....strictly according to my texts they are not...

Elizabeth said:

Oh, really ? I usually interpose で and て endings to create
悲しくって（くなって）欲しくなかったので、
悲しく（なら）ないで欲しかったので
Are these both incorrect....strictly according to my texts they are not...

Click to expand...

Hi Elizabeth san,

I think both
悲しくなって欲しくなかったので
悲しくならないで欲しかったので
should be also good - if anything, the latter sounds more natural.


While writing this, another translation came up to my mind
悲しまないで欲しかったので

I see everyone's talking about using 'you ni'. When my teacher was trying to think of an example sentence I could hear her saying "something something you ni" but she didn't want to use it because I haven't studied it yet.

ように has many uses one of which is an "in order to, so that" usage. I have only used it with positive verbage not too familiar with it in the negative sense.

But if your wanting to mainly relay a wanting by the father then ~欲しい or ～たい would probably be the best forms to use. Good luck.