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I am wondering how I express my feelings about an action that has already occurred/been performed.

For example, how would I state the following:

  • I am happy to have returned home.
  • I am sad that I missed the train.
  • I am upset that I finished the apples.

My best guess for the first example is the following:
帰った【かえった】ことが嬉しい【うれしい】。

However, I am unsure about my usage of こと. If it is correct are there other ways of writing this kind of sentence that I should be aware of?

I know that の is also used for verb nominalisation but as far as I could find online that would be wrong since the two actions are being performed at different points in time, right?

Jon D
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    what are your attempts at forming these sentences with those sentiments? – A.Ellett Jul 12 '17 at 02:15
  • My best attempt at the first one is: 帰ったことが嬉しい。 But I'm not sure if I'm using こと correctly in this context; I'm also a little unsure of my usage of the word 帰る but that's a different issue. Even if that is correct, are there other ways of phrasing it that I should be aware of? – Jon D Jul 12 '17 at 02:22
  • @JonathanDiGiacomo Please incorporate your attempts into your question otherwise people would think it a simple translation request. – broccoli facemask Jul 12 '17 at 02:28
  • @broccoliforest sorry for failing to do that originally. I can see how my question sounded like a translation request. – Jon D Jul 12 '17 at 02:45
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    [Te-form for reason](http://www.learn-japanese-adventure.com/te-form-cause-reason.html) works fine. – naruto Jul 12 '17 at 04:19

2 Answers2

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Yes, your use of ～た + こと construction is correct. You can express the sentiment about an event that happened in the past at the moment of feeling.

  • 家に帰れた［こと／の］‌がうれしい。
    *Equivalent of "happy that --" is typically expressed with potential form, especially for the action of yourself.
  • 電車を逃【の】がした［こと／の］‌が残念だ。
  • りんごを全部食べてしまったことにうろたえている。

However, the sentiment toward what has (just) happened is simply described with the successive function of te-form.

  • 家に帰れてうれしい。
  • 電車を逃がし（てしまっ）て残念だ。
  • りんごを全部食べてしまってうろたえている。
broccoli facemask
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    `"happy that V"` は happy that SV か happy to V じゃなくて・・？ – Chocolate Jul 12 '17 at 07:00
  • @Chocolate そうですよね。それから、「たことが＋形容詞」と「て＋形容詞」と、どちらが有り勝ちでしょうか。「て」の方が、聞くことが良くありますが、「たこと」というのは聞いたことないと思います。。。 – Right leg Jul 12 '17 at 08:10
  • @Chocolate ほんとですね。SVのつもりだったのですが動詞のことしか考えてませんでしたw – broccoli facemask Jul 12 '17 at 08:40
  • @Rightleg 回答の通り、二つの表現の間にはニュアンスの差があるので、いつでも交換して使えるわけではありません。よく使われるのは「て」の方だと思います。 – broccoli facemask Jul 12 '17 at 08:48
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How to express feelings about a performed action?

I am happy to have returned home.
I am sad that I missed the train.
I am upset that I finished the apples.

帰ったことが嬉しい is not wrong, but we don't really say it.

I think what you are looking for is ～してよかった, or ～できてうれしい.
This is the way we say it.

帰れて良かった, literally saying "It's good that I've been able to have come back."

電車に乗り遅れて悲しい。乗れなくて残念。It seems it's always natural to say ～して悲しい, ～してがっかり, ～できなくて残念。

食べてしまって自分が腹立たしい。
mm.. more realistically, it might be 食べてしまった。悲しい。

karlalou
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