Thread: Had a good time.

I know some ukranian guy (speaks russian) who insists that the phrase "I/We/They had a good time" means something sexual. Maybe it could if the context was right but thats certainly not the usual meaning. I'm wondering if you translate this literally into russian if it has this meaning or if the guy is just an idiot.

They| had a good time | together.
Они | хорошо провели время | вместе.
Они | весело провели время | вместе.

Well, it has some romantic sens, if it was "a date". As you see, normal man and woman dont spend time together for reading Holy Writ.
But no sexual meaning at all!

See:

I had a good time with my children in Сircus.
Я хорошо провел время со своими детьми в цирке.
Я весело провел время со своими детьми в цирке.

No sexual meaning at all.

They had a good time ~ Они хорошо развлеклись.

It may be said with a suggestion that they had sex, but most of the time it's pretty innocent phrase.

Originally Posted by Layne

I know some ukranian guy (speaks russian) who insists that the phrase "I/We/They had a good time" means something sexual. Maybe it could if the context was right but thats certainly not the usual meaning. I'm wondering if you translate this literally into russian if it has this meaning or if the guy is just an idiot.

There is a certain age when everything seems to mean something sexual. I strongly suspect that guy to be of this very age.
The phrase could mean that but apart from that it has qute many other meanings and "sexual meaning" is not being among the most frequently used.

Originally Posted by svar45

They| had a good time | together.
Они | хорошо провели время | вместе.
Они | весело провели время | вместе.

Well, it has some romantic sens, if it was "a date". As you see, normal man and woman dont spend time together for reading Holy Writ.
But no sexual meaning at all!

See:

I had a good time with my children at the Сircus.
Я хорошо провел время со своими детьми в цирке.
Я весело провел время со своими детьми в цирке.

No sexual meaning at all.

Thanks, basurero! I'll try to remember!

No problem!

I was having a good time
v.s
I had a good time

Could you provide some context for those 2 sentences to help me comprehend the main difference between them


(
I asked because I always had thought that
Мы провели хорошо время = We were having a good time
Нам было хорошо (в прошлом) = We had a good time
)

I think that the reason behind the controversy and discomfort of "мы хорошо провели время" is that it does not sound like it is 100% Russian. It rather is a calque like "сделать звонок". Much better is to say "развлеклись/повеселились/оттянулись/погудели" and "позвонить" instead.

Originally Posted by Chuvak

I was having a good time
v.s
I had a good time

Could you provide some context for those 2 sentences to help me comprehend the main difference between them

I was having a good time : this sentence will normally not stand alone, but will be followed by "but", "and" or "when". It is an ongoing process, within the context the action is not finished.
= "I was in the middle of having a good time, when (something else happened)"

I had a good time: it's a finished process.
="I had a good time yesterday, and it's over now."

I guess, if we have to generalize, you could make a rough comparison to the Russian perfectives and imperfectives (or duratives, I prefer that term):
I was having a good time: imperfective, action not finished
I had a good time : perfective, action finished


Could you say "Они хорошо вели время вместе" in Russian?

Originally Posted by BabaYaga

Could you say "Они хорошо вели время вместе" in Russian?

No

Они хорошо провели/проводили время вместе

Originally Posted by BabaYaga

Could you say "Они хорошо вели время вместе" in Russian?

Nope.
But you can say: "Они хорошо проводили время вместе"

Ну, хоть убейте, не вижу никакого секса в том, чтобы хорошо и весело провести время с кем-то.

Originally Posted by Alware

No
Они хорошо провели/проводили время вместе

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Nope.
But you can say: "Они хорошо проводили время вместе"

Oh, OK, thanks guys.

So, is "Они хорошо проводили время вместе" durative? Would I be correct in supposing that:

I had a good time = Они хорошо провели время вместе
I was having a good time = Они хорошо проводили время вместе

Originally Posted by BabaYaga

They have a good time = Они хорошо провели время вместе
They were having a good time = Они хорошо проводили время вместе

Originally Posted by Ramil

There is a certain age when everything seems to mean something sexual. I strongly suspect that guy to be of this very age.

I'm not exactly sure what age you are talking about Ramil, but the guy is 35, you'd think he's past that. I expect it's just a matter of 1) horrible english, 2) unwillingness to learn from people with better english, and 3) he's an idiot.


Thanks for all the help!

it's can be some kind of prostitutes slang, a sort of "не хотите поразвлечься?" they use often such words. But they use many idioms for sexual inducement.

Originally Posted by BabaYaga

Originally Posted by Alware

No
Они хорошо провели/проводили время вместе

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Nope.
But you can say: "Они хорошо проводили время вместе"

Oh, OK, thanks guys.

So, is "Они хорошо проводили время вместе" durative? Would I be correct in supposing that:

I had a good time = Они хорошо провели время вместе
I was having a good time = Они хорошо проводили время вместе

No, you are wrong
Проводили means a repetitive action in the past, not a continuous.

Они хорошо проводили время вместе. = They had a good time day in day out (not necessarily in a row, but many times in the past).
Они хорошо провели время вместе. = They had a good time (one time only, on some particular occasion, once).

The perfective is used to describe one completed action.
The imperfective is used to describe either a continuous incomplete action or repetitive completed actions in the past.

I'm not a linguist, so I may have forgotten something here. I only tried to explain the general idea without considering exceptions.

Anything can have sexual connotations if you really want it too, but it will be expressed with some kind of facial expression or stress on a certain word etc...