A: What a coincidence!
B: Did you come to take part in the raffle?
A: Yes, have you?
B: Good luck! I didn’t come close to winning, though.
In this situation, what should you say ‘I didn’t come close to winning, though’ in Japanese?
Casual
B：私はかすりもしなかったけどね。
Note: This is not a word-for-word translation.
Advanced Tips
A word-for-word translation
B：でも、当選には程遠かったんです。
This sentence isn’t bad, but it sounds a little formal.
In casual conversation, we often use かすりもしない.
The original meaning of 掠る, the verb form of かすり, is to touch very lightly and pass by.
From this, かすりもしない evolved to mean ‘completely unrelated’, and to emphasise this further, the expression ‘not even close enough to touch’ came to be used.
This is often used, even with older people, as in 私はかすりもしませんでしたけど.
To show more politeness, you can use 程遠い, as in 私は程遠かったですけどね.
In this situation, we usually omit ‘winning’,当選には , and I think it sounds more natural.
