Asking about "time sent" and "time received"


What is the proper syntax for questions like "When was this message sent?" or
"When did you receive my message?". Another example would be "What time was it
when was this message received?".

Beyond that I'm having an inordinate amount of trouble with these things:

  1. In the case of IMs would 送信する、送る、or something else used as the verb?

  2. What verb form would be used for sent/received? is it a direct passive?

  3. Which 何時 would it be? Would なんじ, いつ, or something else be used here? 

I'm looking for the right syntax as much as or more than the right words. I'm
not really sure why this is harder for me than other "when" questions.




なんじ refers to a time of day. いつ is a generic "when". I see why you're
confused, but いつ is going to be the more common in this context. なんじ is more
of a fixed time of day as opposed to いつ, which is far more general. You
**can** use なんじ, and it's not unnatural at all, but I think it reflects
something of a "what time did you receive my text" rather than a "when did you
receive my text".

送る and 送信する are both used for messaging. I use 送る as a person because it's
more natural. 送信 is just too formal / mechanical.

It's passive if you need it to be. I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Just
remember that メッセージ is the _noun_ for messages.

