Breakdown of musume ha mada tiisai desu ga, hazimete no konsaato de totemo uresisou desita.
Questions & Answers about musume ha mada tiisai desu ga, hazimete no konsaato de totemo uresisou desita.
は is the topic marker. It tells us that 娘 (my daughter) is the topic of the sentence—what the sentence is “about.”
- 娘は = “As for (my) daughter,” or “My daughter, (speaking about her)...”
In English, we usually don’t explicitly mark the topic, but in Japanese, は sets up the frame. Everything that follows (small, at her first concert, looked very happy) is information about the daughter.
まだ means “still / yet” and adds the idea that the situation continues up to now.
- 小さい = “is small”
- まだ小さい = “is still small” (the speaker feels she’s young/small for now, possibly will grow up)
So the nuance is:
“My daughter is still small (she’s still a little kid, not grown up yet), but…”
It can imply a contrast with what you might expect (e.g., even though she’s still small, she reacted like this at the concert).
Yes, が here is a conjunction meaning “but / although.”
- 小さいです = “(she) is small.”
- 小さいですが、〜 = “She is small, but 〜” or “Although she is small, 〜”
In spoken and written polite Japanese, 〜ですが、〜 is a common way to connect two contrasting ideas politely.
Note: This is not the subject marker が; it’s the clausal が meaning “but.”
初めてのコンサート literally is:
- 初めて – “first time”
- の – turns 「初めて」 into a modifier for the noun
- コンサート – “concert”
So 初めてのコンサート = “concert that is (her) first (one)” → “her first concert.”
Grammar pattern:
- [adverb/adjectival expression] + の + noun
to make a phrase like “first-ever X,” “usual X,” etc.
Examples:
- 初めての海外旅行 – first trip abroad
- いつもの店 – the usual shop
In 初めてのコンサートで, the particle で marks the place where an action or state occurs.
- コンサートで = “at the concert”
So the sentence part 初めてのコンサートでとても嬉しそうでした means:
“At her first concert, she looked very happy.”
で can mark:
- the location of an event:
- 学校で勉強します – I study at school.
- the place where a state is seen:
- 駅で先生に会いました – I met the teacher at the station.
嬉しそうでした is built from:
- 嬉しい – “happy” (adjective)
- 嬉しそう – “seems/looks happy” (appearance)
- でした – past polite copula (“was”)
So 嬉しそうでした = “(she) looked happy / seemed happy.”
Difference:
- 嬉しかったです
- “was happy” (speaker states her actual internal emotion as a fact)
- 嬉しそうでした
- “looked / seemed happy” (speaker is describing what they observed from the outside—facial expression, behavior, etc.)
In Japanese, using 〜そう is often more modest and natural when talking about someone else’s feelings, which you can’t know directly.
For i-adjectives, the common pattern is:
- Remove the final い, add そう.
- 嬉しい → 嬉しそう (looks happy)
- おいしい → おいしそう (looks tasty)
For na-adjectives, just add そう:
- 元気 → 元気そう (seems healthy/energetic)
Meaning: “seems / looks / appears (adjective)” based on what you can observe.
Examples:
- 彼は忙しそうです。 – He looks busy.
- このケーキはおいしそうですね。 – This cake looks delicious, doesn’t it?
Then you treat 〜そう as a na-adjective-like form:
- 嬉しそうな子ども – a child who looks happy
- 嬉しそうでした – (she) looked happy (polite past)
Japanese often mixes present and past within one sentence when they refer to different time frames:
- 娘はまだ小さいです – “My daughter is still small.”
- This is a current, ongoing state. She is still small now.
- （が、）…とても嬉しそうでした。 – “…but she looked very happy.”
- This refers to a specific event in the past (the first concert).
So the sentence means:
“My daughter is still small (now), but (back then at that time) at her first concert, she looked very happy.”
The tense is chosen based on when each part is true, not forced to match across the sentence.
In Japanese, possessives like my / your / his / her are often omitted when obvious from context.
- 娘 literally just means “daughter” (or sometimes “girl” in certain contexts).
- When a speaker talks about family members, it usually defaults to their own family unless otherwise specified.
So in context, 娘は is naturally understood as “my daughter” in English, even though Japanese doesn’t say 私の娘 here. Adding 私の娘は is possible but can sound overly explicit or unnatural if it’s already clear who is speaking.
とても is an adverb meaning “very / extremely” that modifies adjectives and some adverbs.
- 嬉しそう – “seems happy”
- とてもうれしそう – “seems very happy” / “looked really happy”
So とても嬉しそうでした = “(she) looked very happy.”
Other examples:
- とてもきれいです。 – It’s very pretty.
- とても寒いです。 – It’s very cold.
Yes, the sentence uses polite form consistently:
- 小さいです – polite form of 小さい
- 嬉しそうでした – past polite form using でした
This is the standard polite style (です／ます form) suitable for:
- Talking to people you’re not very close to
- Writing in most neutral contexts (e.g., essays, journals, polite conversation)
A more casual version might be:
- 娘はまだ小さいけど、初めてのコンサートでとてもうれしそうだった。
Yes, grammatically you can say:
- 娘はまだ小さいですが、初めてのコンサートでとても嬉しかったです。
However, the nuance changes:
嬉しかったです – “(she) was happy”
- Stronger assertion about her actual internal feeling.
- Often sounds like you know directly how she felt (e.g., she told you, or you’re describing your own feelings).
嬉しそうでした – “(she) looked happy”
- Describes what you observed (her expression/behavior).
- Feels a bit more natural and modest for talking about someone else’s emotions in Japanese.
So the original 嬉しそうでした is slightly more typical when describing how another person appeared at that time.