How do you say "I couldn't have been happier" in German?

Question

Ok guys somebody please explain to me what's the difference between the two sentences in the first and second answer. They have different meanings, right?

Answer 1

I couldn't have been happier:

Ich hätte nicht glücklicher sein können.
(idiomatic translation, present tense in German)

Ich hätte nicht glücklicher gewesen sein können.
(closer to the tense structure of the English sentence, i.e. using the perfect)


The difference between the two other answers is that the first answer (Ich hätte nicht glücklicher sein können.) is the idiomatic translation of the phrase, i.e. the translation you could really hear in German.
The second translation (Ich könnte nicht glücklicher gewesen sein.) is closest to the exact wording of the English phrase.

Literally the phrase translates as:
*Ich könnte nicht haben sein glücklicher.
or in a more German word order:
*Ich könnte nicht glücklicher haben sein.
However, you cannot say "haben sein".

German has two ways of expressing the perfect, using "haben" (have) and "sein" (be).
"Ich bin gegangen", literally "*I be gone" meaning "I have gone".
"Ich habe gespielt", literally "I have played".
The structure is the same as in English: subject - auxiliary verb inflected according to the subject - main verb in the past participle
The verb "sein" needs "sein" as auxiliary for the perfect, therefore it's "gewesen sein" and not "haben sein".

So, if you translated the English phrase literally but with German verbal grammar it's:
Ich könnte nicht gewesen sein glücklicher.
Put into German word order it's:
Ich könnte nicht glücklicher gewesen sein.

Hence the difference between the two answers.

Answer 2

The first answer is the one you'd hear more often from Germans, although both are correct and mean basically the same thing. (One reason they might look more different than they really are is that the first answerer used ö, ü and ä, and the second answerer used oe and ue--two ways of writing the same letter.) Just like English, German has many ways to say the same thing.

Answer 3

Ich koennte nicht gluecklicher gewesen sein. My German coworker just typed this in for me! The source is a real German native speaker. Good luck!

Answer 4

Ich hätte nicht glücklicher sein können.

Answer 5

Both answers are correct, but of course they sound stumbling - and that´s up to your question. Why didn´t you ask for "overjoyed"?

"Ich war überglücklich."