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I'm "learning" Japanese and I need a bit of help regarding an exercise from
the Genki I Textbook.

Lesson 6, Question 6, Example 3. I need to make a conversation between 2
people (A and B).

This is what I'm given for A:

You are asked to return your friend's video today, but you forgot to bring.
You want to return it later.

Description for B:

You asked your friend to return your video today. You need it today because
you want to watch it with another friend.

This is how I made the conversation.

A: Video を わすれました. あした に もってくる

Now regarding the response with B.. I don't know what is the right way to say
it.

I would start with something like でもきょうは but I don't know what is the right
word to continue with. Hopefully someone can help me.

On another note, is it okay if I ask questions like this? There is no one I
know that can help me with this and on the one forum I found it always takes a
while to get a response.

Is it okay if I make more questions about translation? Or will it be
considered spam?

EDIT: B example. でもきょうがvideoをもている. ともだちとoみています
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2017-08-06T17:30:41.630
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2017-08-07T02:00:11.683
2017-08-06T20:37:14.133
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translation verbs
Genki question. Translating a roleplay conversation
I don't remember exactly what kind of grammar has been covered by Genki until
chapter six. I'll try to answer using very basic constructions, if there is
something you don't understand please ask in a comment and I'll expand the
explanation.

First how I would do the dialog:

_A: ビデオを忘｛わす｝れました、ごめんなさい。明日｛あした｝返｛かえ｝してもいいですか？_

_B: あ、そうですか？今日｛きょう｝Ｃさんと一緒｛いっしょ｝に観｛み｝たかったんですけど。。。_

In English:

_A: I forgot the video. Can I return it tomorrow?_

_B: Ah, really? I wanted to watch it with C-san today..._

**Explanation for A**

This part should be clear enough. Compared to what you attempt I added a
simple apology (ごめんなさい) and removed the particle に after tomorrow (you don't
need it since it's a generic time. As a general rule, you use に when you are
indicating specific times like 8月11日に...). Also, I changed the verb to 返{かえ}す
which means "to return (something)". In case you haven't studied that yet the
construction " verb in て-form (I assume you studied the te-form already) +
もいいですか" is a standard polite way to ask "may I/ is it OK if I do verb?". So in
our example that becomes "is it OK if I return it tomorrow?".

**Explanation for B:**

This is a bit tricky maybe since it is hard to guess what is your grammar
background. I tried to keep it as simple as possible but I still feel it might
be hard to understand. If so please ask (in case I'll think of something even
simpler I'll edit the answer).

Well the first thing should be fine. He just asked "Ah, really?" since I
imagined he would be surprised expecting the video to be returned today. Then
he explains that he wanted to watch it today with C in this way (literal
translation):

"Today, together with (一緒｛いっしょ｝に) C wanted to watch..."

There are a few things here to explain:

  * The conjugation in ーたい of the verb (みるー＞みたい) which expresses wanting to do something. But I guess this is studied early so maybe you have that covered. The only thing here is that it's conjugated in the past tense (which becomes ーたかった). Nothing really special
  * The second thing that probably is hard for now is that ん. This is a bit tricky to explain in a few words but to put it simply let's say that it is a way to connect a verb when it's followed by something like ~ですが ~ですけど etc. You can find plenty of references on this I will add some link later. At [this link](http://maggiesensei.com/2010/09/08/request-lesson-when-and-how-to-use-%E3%82%93n-%E3%81%AE%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99%E2%86%92%E3%82%93%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99%EF%BC%89/) you can find a lot of examples and explanations about this.
  * The last thing is maybe the most subtle.. as you noticed I didn't explicitly write anything about returning the video today. This is very Japanese in the sense that as you probably heard people seldom ask things directly but they let the partner infer instead. In this case, B probably wouldn't directly say "please return it today", but rather "ah, I wanted to watch it with C today". This automatically implies that he wants the video back today so technically there is no need to specify it. Now, in a context of friends obviously B could very well just add "今日[返]｛かえ｝してください" but I tried to keep it that way to add this quite important point of the Japanese culture.

**Edit:** As @mackygoo pointed out in a comment. Notice that in a real
conversation between two friends/peers, you would unlikely hear "そうですか". That
indeed sounds quite formal for such a situation. You would probably hear more
things like "まじ？？" or "え？困｛こま｝ったなあーー". I used そうですか because I would imagine
that you heard that for sure while you probably haven't studied yet the
casual/conversational Japanese. While I'm at it, I will also write below how I
imagine the conversation would happen for real:

A: ビデオ忘｛わす｝れちゃった。。ごめん！明日返していい？

B：えっ？困｛こま｝ったなあ。。今日Ｃと見たかったからさ。。
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2017-08-07T02:00:11.683
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answer