How to Say “There was a lot of traffic.” in Japanese

How do you say “There was a lot of traffic.” in Japanese?

Today’s phrase is :

There was a lot of traffic.

渋滞してた。

 juutai* shiteta

If you want to speak politely, you can say :

渋滞してました。

 juutai* shitemashita

*We pronounce “juutai” like “jūtai”.

  • There was … = … があった … ga atta
  • a lot of traffic = 渋滞 juutai

The literal translation of “There was a lot of traffic.” is “渋滞があった juutaiga atta”, but that sounds unnatural. It sounds more natural to say “渋滞してた” or “渋滞してました”.