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I browsed around this website (here and here) as well as around the internet but could not come up with a satisfactory answer, or at least well related to my case (though I might have missed that point).

Simply, the other day a quite old lady (over 70 I think) asked me 「楽しいでした？」 at the end of a shodou class.

My question is, is this just a polite version of 「楽しかった？」that somehow confuses me? In such case would that be more polite than 「楽しかったですか」?

Or is it just a way older people might talk sometimes? At the moment I heard it my first thought was whether she thought I could not speak Japanese and put it in a wrong but easy to understand form (as if she thought I might not know how to conjugate an いーadjective properly).

Maybe it's just a silly question but right there on the spot it confused me a bit and I would like some clarifications. Thanks.

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Tommy
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  • Next time ask her maybe ? – oldergod Sep 12 '16 at 06:43
  • Eheh good point, on the spot I didn't think about asking. – Tommy Sep 12 '16 at 08:38
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    I never expect a native speaker of Japanese to say "楽しいでした". "she thought I could not speak Japanese and put it in a wrong but easy to understand form" +1 for your guess. One form of Pidgin, I'd say. – nodakai Sep 12 '16 at 10:06
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    Are you sure you just didn't mishear 「楽しい**ん**でした？」 – istrasci Sep 12 '16 at 14:00
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    Was there any hesitation in their voice? It could also be possible that the past tense was an afterthought or a similar mistake. I often find myself incapable of speaking my own native language properly (especially when tired!) – BCDeWitt Sep 12 '16 at 14:36
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    方言という可能性はないんでしょうか・・ – Chocolate Sep 13 '16 at 00:30
  • @istrasci well, I couldn't swear there was no ん in the middle, but i don't think there was. Anyway, in case it was with the ん, wouldn't that sound strange as well? Or would it be perfectly normal? – Tommy Sep 13 '16 at 02:33
  • @BDawg As I could not remember about the ん, I could not really say about any hesitation. Good point though. – Tommy Sep 13 '16 at 02:33
  • @chocolate そうですね、私もその可能性もあると思っていた。今度直接聞いた方がいいかな。 Anyway, as I thought based on these comments it seems that the expression itself is indeed strange. Thanks everyone for the inputs. – Tommy Sep 13 '16 at 02:33

2 Answers2

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My assumption is that she asked 楽しいでしたか？ In that case, it might sound natural, depending on the context.

Yuki Inoue
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I think it pays to bear in mind that people who speak a language at a native level often use the language in ways that we would consider as improper, on a grammatical level(e.g. how someone could be saying the most profound things, but wrt it ot lyk dis, bcuz dis is hw dey grw up wrtng out their thoughts n feelings). Grammar is still important, but as long as you can understand them, everything else is gravy

Roy Fuentes
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