by Tomoyuki Higuchi
How do you say “I went to Japan 5 years ago.” in Japanese?
Today’s phrase is :
I went to Japan _ years ago.
_ 年前日本に行ったよ。
_ nenmae nihonni ittayo
If you want to speak politely, you can say :
_ 年前日本に行きました。
_ nenmae nihonni ikimashita
When you want to say “I went to Japan _ years ago.”, put the number of years passed just before “年前 nenmae”.
“年前” means “year(s) ago”.
- a year ago ＝ １年前 ichinenmae OR 去年 kyonen*
- 2 years ago ＝ ２年前 ninenmae
- 3 years ago ＝ ３年前 sannenmae
- 5 years ago ＝ ５年前 gonenmae
- 10 years ago ＝ １０年前 juunenmae
- 15 years ago ＝ １５年前 juugonenmae
*We usually say “去年 kyonen” for “a year ago” rather than “１年前”.
For example, if you want to say “I went to Japan 5 years ago.”, you can say like this :
５年前日本に行ったよ。
gonenmae nihonni ittayo
Or politely :
５年前日本に行きました。
gonenmae nihonni ikimashita
- I went to … ＝ わたしは … に行きました watashiwa … ni ikimashita
- Japan ＝ 日本 nihon
- … year(s) ago ＝ … 年前 nenmae
We do not usually say “わたしは watashiwa (= I)” in everyday conversation.
５年前
5 years ago
＋
日本に
to Japan
＋
わたしは 行きましたI went
