我那天临时有事
“Something came up last minute.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
你那天怎么没去唱歌啊
“Why didn't you sing the other day?”
我那天 临时有事
“Something came up last minute.”
要不是今天见到你本人
“If I didn't meet you today,”
“I did not attend because of unexpected plans, so please do not dig any deeper.”
Vagueness like 'having unexpected business' is widely used in Chinese social etiquette to preserve mutual face without oversharing private details.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
something came up unexpectedly
A universally accepted, polite excuse in spoken Chinese to decline an invitation or explain an absence.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“I was wrong that day.”
“I came to apologize for what happened earlier today.”
“that she might have been in a hurry that day.”
“I went too far that day.”
“It was just a misunderstanding that day.”
“has a last-minute emergency.”