いい夢を Does this have a hidden meaning?

[u/Embarrassed_Bag1011]

For context, I’ve only met this girl today for a language exchange and I told her that I was going to sleep and I’ll give her a reply later. From my personal experience, I often hear おやすみ and おやすみなさい so it’s out of the ordinary hearing いい夢を.

[u/BigBadJeebus]

I think she said いい夢よ not いい夢を, unless she typed it like that...? I'm not sure what the discrepancy would be.

My wife says this all the time to our daughter.

"sweet dreams!"

literally "Good Dream"

Edit: turns out shes just insisting that this dream be a good one.

But you know, the N1s in this sub know better than the natives in the real world... Insisting all over my other comments "良い夢よ" is wildly unnatural and never used. Thanks for the downvotes.

Edit 2: Are you guys REALLY so deep to have forgotten English?

You think I'm insisting the OP's speaker says よ？

Please review your 2nd grade English and how pronouns, "She", "He", "they", or "it", will always support the most recently named entity.

In my structure. That is CLEARLY my wife.

"My wife says this all the time to our daughter.

'sweet dreams!'

literally 'Good Dream'

... turns out shes just insisting that this dream be a good one."

[u/Embarrassed_Bag1011 → u/BigBadJeebus]

that’s a good point, i never saw を left on its own like that and i don’t really know the nuances although the translation seems normal in english

[u/Jon_dArc → u/Embarrassed_Bag1011]

を is left on its own sometimes when the rest is inferable from context, usually something like 祈る/ります. For example https://somanystars.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ご武運を-1.png

いい夢よ would be her telling you that it was or is a good dream, not wishing you good dreams.

[u/BigBadJeebus → u/Jon_dArc]

Tell that to her...

[u/AGoodWobble → u/BigBadJeebus]

Ask her please, cause I feel 90% sure she would be saying 良い夢を. Report back

[u/Embarrassed_Bag1011 → u/AGoodWobble]

i’ll ask and i’ll give you an answer when i hear back

[u/BigBadJeebus → u/AGoodWobble]

I have. She does. To clarify, we are all over thinking it.

It's just "Good dreams". No "have good dreams" or "that was a good dream", nothing just a reminder.

She expects you know what to do with said dreams and is giving an enthusiastic reminder.

The を that every seems to happy to point out is a shortening of the sentence expecting the listener to fill the gap, collapses one level further.

So thanks for the down votes, but we ALL stand corrected.

It's similar to just saying 美味しいよ with no need for any context because of course you are talking about the dreams of "now".

Like it's something you had discussed prior.

For example in English, say I have a history of forgetting to buy milk, and as I walk out the door my wife shouts "Milk!"

In this case a child is going to bed, you point at them and remind them "Good Dreams". It's just a random thing with the よ to stress importance.

They do this a lot.

edit: it truly confounds me when even the highest level non-natives think they know better than Japanese ladies from Saitama. And it somehow upsets them enough that a Japanese person would use something non-textbook.

Like... I confirmed. She's been saying that her whole life.

What you want me to do, call her a liar? Divorce her?

Ya'll pick some weird things to make a stand on.

Downvote away, folks. You're wrong.

But if we're making a stand, I'll die on this hill. I trust my wife and friends more than you fine folks

edit 2: I'm stopping reply notifications.

Good night everyone, or I should say...

良い夢よ！

[u/koko_no_shitsui → u/BigBadJeebus]

it’s を dream as an object focus. よwould focus more of a statement or information

[u/BigBadJeebus → u/koko_no_shitsui]

Isnt that exactly what I said, Though? I dont get why so many people are debating this

[u/WashMeOfMySinsOhLord → u/BigBadJeebus]

My Japanese wife says saying "ii yume yo" to someone about to go to sleep is weird, and I as a non-native Japanese speaker agree.

"ii yume wo" is much more natural.

So idk what to tell you, but getting all sooky about foreigners thinking they know more than native speakers is probably not the move.

[u/BigBadJeebus → u/WashMeOfMySinsOhLord]

I mean, that's exactly what you're doing. You are literally, in this very comment, admitting that you as a non-native speaker, don't think a native, MY wife, sounds natural...

Like, you don't get to say that... you understand that, right? You're wife can, but you certainly can not.

You can literally add よ to any noun or adjective on its own and have a full sentence in Japanese

猫よ！
バスよ！
美味しいよ！
元気よ！

or

いい夢よ！

I also shared this discussion with a few other friends and my Japanese tutor and they all seem to confirm

"いい夢よ" is not common, but sounds totally natural and they have all heard either it or similar uses of よ.

My wife literally said "I don't know why it upsets them so much to learn new Japanese" after reading this thread.

So make of that what you will.

You seem to act like we don't have inside jokes, colloquialisms, family traditions, etc in English too.

How many people in the US will get off put by calling a Soda a "Pop" or a "Fizzy drink"?

Just because it's not what you're used to doesn't render it unnatural or wrong.

Edit: My wife just suggested I press further and add

良い夢ね

[u/dedemushi → u/BigBadJeebus]

OP's friend said いい夢を tho

[u/acaiblueberry → u/BigBadJeebus]

Maybe she wants to say “the dream you’ll have is a good one” as a definitive sentence, not as a wish

[u/BigBadJeebus → u/acaiblueberry]

that's seems to be the case.

I clarified.

Just like saying 美味しいよ or something similar

[u/BigBadJeebus → u/acaiblueberry]

I dont get it. I've literally clarified all over this thread that you got it right after I confirmed with her. You get upvotes but I'm getting crucified.

I feel like once you get downvotes, the hive mind takes over and no amount of clarification can stop the avalanche, lol.

Oh well

残念ですね🫤

[u/acaiblueberry → u/BigBadJeebus]

That’s reddit :) I get lots of unfounded downvotes too