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According to Google Translate, the translation of "Did you have a fun night?" is: Ты должен весело ночь? But I suspect должен is being used in the wrong context of "to have" here.

According to Yandex Translate, the translation is: повеселилась ночью? But I could not find any information on повеселилась on wiktionary, so I'm suspicious about the quality of this translation.

ycele
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    "Весело провёл(he)/провела(she) ночь?" "Повеселился(he)/повеселилась(she) ночью?" – Eugene Dec 05 '15 at 14:49
  • @Eugene The nominative form of провёл/провела is провести. What is the nominative form of повеселился/повеселилась? I'm having difficulty finding it. – ycele Dec 05 '15 at 15:02
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    @ycele - It's called "the infinitive", not the "nominative form". The infinitive of "повеселился/повеселилась" is "повеселиться". – Yellow Sky Dec 05 '15 at 15:31
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    "Ты должен весело ночь" is totally ungrammatical set of words. – Anixx Dec 05 '15 at 18:54
  • That depends on the context. – user31264 Dec 06 '15 at 15:16
  • What is the literal translation of "Весело провёл ночь"? Is it idiomatic here? I'm curious because my book defines провести (infinitive of провёл) as "to conduct, lead". – ycele Dec 06 '15 at 17:41
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    We use also word "провел" when speaking about spending time. Examples: "Провёл время", "Провёл день", "Провёл ночь" or "Провёл ". It is not about leading, it is about using your time. – Astronavigator Dec 07 '15 at 02:58
  • http://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/8708/%d0%9a%d0%b0%d0%ba-%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b0%d0%b7%d0%b0%d1%82%d1%8c-i-had-fun-im-having-fun-its-fun – Avtokod Dec 08 '15 at 15:36

4 Answers4

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I would ask this as "Как провели вечер?" - sounds natural.

  • Not ночь, but вечер.
  • It is assumed that it was fun because why else would you be there?
  • English phrases favor lots of short words, no reason to translate them all into Russian sentence.
alamar
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Generally, translation is rebuilding the original sense from scratch by means of another language: very often you can't just combine translated words without getting something unnatural.

In a context where the other person is known to have attended some party, the asking person might wonder if they had a good time: was that night a fun night? Then the original sentence can be translated like this: Вы хорошо провели (э)тот вечер?

Alex_ander
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Yandex translation is a better one. Although it is appropriate for a singular female.

Google translation is rather clumsy: it chooses the meaning of obligation (должен) as a translation of the verb 'to have' in this particular case.

"Весело провёл ночь"?: literal translation is "Did you conduct (spend) a fun night?". So, it is quite idiomatic in this case.

B.I.
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Google Translate version is awful. At the same time Yandex version is appropriate for a singular female. I myself would say: "У тебя была веселая ночь?"

porlicus
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