direct speech japanese grammar

Grammar , JLPT N3

Direct & Indirect speech ＆って ( = tte)

「マギーってフラダンス踊れるの？」

= Maggie tte furadansu odoreru no?

= Can you hula dance, Maggie?

「ダンスは下手だって聞いたよ。」

= Dansu wa hetadatte kiita yo.

= I heard you are not a good dancer.

「踊れるってば！」

= Odorerutteba!

= I’m telling you! I can dance!

Hi everyone! This lesson has two parts.

The first part is how to make a direct/indirect speech. Actually, I got a request from ハリちゃん a long time ago, and she asked me how to quote speech when writing. Sorry, Hari-chan, that it took me a long time to make this lesson. I didn’t forget about your request. :)

The second part is about って (=tte) particle.

That’s it? Yes, small っ and て！That’s it. But again, be ready! It is going to be another long lesson.

Here we go!

OK, first thing is first. Let’s focus on the basic grammar!

🔸 Direct speech in written dialogue:

As I have mentioned in という、ということ・というもの ( = to iu, toiu koto, toiu mono) lesson

when we quote someone’s speech in novels, stories, or compositions of children, we write the speech in

「」 (= 鍵括弧 = kagi kakko)

(Note : We also use 「」 for the title of the book, thesis, songs and etc.)

Quote the speech with this particle と ( = to) and follow with a verb.

⭐️Basic patterns :

● 👨/ 👩 ( Subject) は「💬 quote 」と言いました。／言った

= 👨/ 👩 wa ” 💬 ” to iimashita. / itta.

= 👨/ 👩 said “💬”

● 「💬 quote 」と 👨/ 👩 ( Subject) は言いました／言った。

= “💬” to 👨/ 👩 wa iimashita/itta.

= ” 💬” 👨/ 👩 said.

● 👨/ 👩 ( Subject) は言った／言いました。「💬 quote 」( と）

= 👨/ 👩 wa itta / iimashita ” 💬” (to)

= 👨/ 👩 said “💬”

( Note : 言いました ( = iimashita) is a polite form of 言った ( = itta) and they are both past tense)

The verb in the main phrase varies but they are usually past tense. (Ex. said, heard, asked, got mad, thought, reacted, scolded, etc.)

Ex. マギーは「これ、おいしい！」と言いました。

= Maggie wa “Kore oishii!” to iimashita.

= Maggie said “This is delicious”

Ex. その男の子はお母さんに「遊びに行ってもいい？」と聞きました。

= Sono otokonoko wa okaasan ni ” Asobini itte mo ii?” to kikimashita.

= The boy asked his mother “Can I go play?”

Ex . おじいさんは「もう一人でここへ来てはいけないよ」と太郎を叱りました。

= Ojiisan wa “Mou hitori de koko e kite wa ikenaiyo” to Tarou wo shikarimashita.

= The grandpa scolded Taro, “Don’t come here by yourself again!”

Ex. 「最近、忙しいの？」と彼女は文句を言った。

= “Saikin, isogashii no?” to kanojo wa monku wo itta.

= “Have you been busy lately?” she complained.

🔸 Indirect speech :

In regular writing, you use indirect speech without writing 「」

Ex. 今日は暑くなると言っていました。

= Kyou wa atsuku naru to itte imashita.

= I heard on TV that it will be hot today. (The literal translation is “Someone (the weather report) said it would be hot today.”)

Ex. 先生が明日はクラスはないと言っていました。

= Sensei ga ashita wa kurasu wa nai to itte imashita.

= The teacher said there was no class tomorrow.

As you know, when you use indirect speech in English, you have to change the tense of the verb in a quote into the past tense.

★ (Direct speech)

A said “B is C”

→(Indirect speech)

A said B was C.

A said “I will do ~”

A said she/he would do ~

But in Japanese, we keep the original tense in the 「 quote 」 .

(direct speech)

Ex. 彼女は「いいお天気だね。」と言いました。

= Kanojo wa “Ii otenki dane” to iimashita.

= She said, “The weather is nice!”.

↓　 (indirect speech)

Ex. 彼女はいいお天気だねと言いました。

= Kanojo wa ii otenki dane to iimashita.

= She said the weather was nice.

Note : Also you know there are two writing styles in Japanese, right?

2) d ictionary form . だ＆ある ( = da & aru) ( Past tense だった＆あった） ( = dattat/atta)

When you write in Japanese, it is important not to mix these and stick to one style.

Ex. Maggie lives in a village. She went to a town for shopping. It was very far.

🔸 です &ます（ desu & masu) form

* マギーは村に住んでいます。今日は町まで買い物に行きました。とても遠かったです。

= Maggie wa mura ni sunde imasu. Kyou wa machi made kaimono ni ikimashita. Totemo tookatta desu.

🔸 だ＆ある (da & aru) form

* マギーは村に住んでいる。今日は町まで買い物に行った。とても遠かった。

= Maggie wa mura ni sunde iru. Kyou wa machi made kaimono ni itta. Totemo tookatta.

It is said you shouldn’t mix these forms.

X マギーは村に住んでいます。今日は町まで買い物に行った。とても遠かったです。

= Maggie wa mura ni sunde imasu. Kyou wa machi made kaimono ni itta. Totemo tookatta desu.

But in reported speech, you can use a different style of the stem in the quote from the main verb.

(Direct speech)

Ex.1- a) 彼は「お腹がすいています」と言いました。

= Kare wa “Onaka ga suite imasu” to iimashita.

= He said, “I am hungry.”

(Indirect speech) The different ending styles.

E x. 1-b) 彼はお腹がすいていると言いました。

= Kare wa onakaga suite iru to iimashita.

= He said he was hungry.

Ex. 2-a) マギーは「今、すごく忙しいです。」と言った。

= Maggie wa “ima sugoku isogashii desu” to itta.

= Maggie said she was very busy now.

(Indirect speech) The different ending styles.

Ex.2-b) マギーは今すごく忙しいと言った。

= Maggie wa ima sugoku isogashii to itte itta.

********************************

Now we can move on to って ( = tte)

In casual reported speech, we use って ( = tte) instead of と ( = to). (I put the underline below the quoted part.)

Ex. マギーが手伝ってほしいと言っています。

= Maggie ga tetsudatte hoshii to itte imasu.

= Maggie is saying she needs your help.

↓ (more casual)

マギーが手伝ってほしいって言ってるよ。

= Maggie ga tetsudatte hoshii tte itteruyo.

Ex. 彼と別れたって聞いたけど本当？

= Kare to wakaretatte kiitakedo hontou?

= I heard you broke up with him. Is it true?

Ex. いつもマギー先生は元気だなって思います。

= Itsumo Maggie sensei wa genki danatte omoimasu.

= I think you are always energetic (or cheerful), Maggie Sensei.

Ex. よくマギーに似てるって言われるでしょ。

= Yoku Maggie ni niterutte iwareru desho.

= I bet you are often told that you look like Maggie

Ex. マギー先生に会いたいなあってずっと思っていました。

= Maggie Sensei ni aitainaatte zutto omotte imashita.

= I’d always wanted to see Maggie Sensei.

In my above-mentioned lesson I taught you when/how to use という ( = toiu) fully so I won’t go over that

very much in this lesson, but the casual way to say という ( = toiu) is

the casual way to say ということ ( = toiukoto) is

Ex. マギーという先生

= Maggie toiu sensei

= A teacher called Maggie

→ マギーっていう先生　→マギーって先生

= Maggie tte iu sensei→Maggie tte sensei

Ex. 「マギー先生」というサイトを知っていますか？

= “Maggie Sensei” toiu saito wo shitte imasuka?

↓（ more casual)

Ex. 「マギー先生」っていうサイトを知ってる？

= Maggie sensei tte iu saito wo shitteru?

= Do you know the site called Maggie Sensei?

↓（more casual)

「マギー先生」ってサイトを知ってる？

= “Maggie Sensei” tte saito wo shitteru?

Ex. 人を好きになるということはどういうこと？

= Hito wo suki ni naru toiu koto wa douiu koto?

= How do you feel when you are in love with someone?

↓ （more casual)

人を好きになるってことはどういうこと？

= Hito wo suki ninaru tte koto wa douiu koto?

人を好きになるってどういうこと？

= Hito wo suki ninaru tte douiu koto?

************

As we have seen, we need the verbs when we quote something, such as

(speech) と (=~ to) / って ( = tte) +

* 言う ( = iu) = to say → (past tense) 言った ( = itte imashita) / 言いました ( =itte ita)

* 思う ( = omou) t0 think → (past tense) 思った ( = omotta) / 思いました ( = omoimashita)

* 聞く ( = kiku) to hear → (past tense) 聞いた ( = kiita) / 聞きました ( = kikimashita) = heard

We often finish the sentence with って ( = ~tte) dropping all these main verbs when you pass along the information or message

Ex. マギーが手伝ってほしいって。

= Maggie ga tetsudatte hoshii tte.

= Maggie is saying (or said) she needed your help.

Ex. 今日、宿題ないんだって。

= Kyou shukudai nain datte.

= I heard (they said) there is no homework today.

Ex. 明日から暑くなるんだって。

= Ashita kara atsuku narundatte.

= I heard/They said it is going to be hot from tomorrow.

Note : If you want to make it slightly more polite use です ( = desu) form instead of だ ( = da).

Ex. 宿題手伝ってほしいんですって。

= Shukudai tetsudatte hoshiin desu tte.

Ex. 今日、宿題ないんですって。

= Kyou shukudai nain desu tte.

Ex. 明日から暑くなるんですって。

= Asu kara atsuku narun desu tte.

Note : We tend to use ん ( = n) instead of の ( = no) in casual conversation.

Ex. マギーがよろしくって！

= Maggie ga yoroshikutte !

= Maggie said hello to you!

Ex. お母さんがねえ、早く起きなさいって！

= Okaasana ga nee, hayaku okinasaitte!

= Mom said get up already!

Note 2) You might have heard/seen some people add さ ( = sa) after って ( = tte) in a very casual reported speech.

Ex. マギーは今日、来ないんだってさ。

= Maggie wa kyou konain dattesa.

= I heard Maggie was not coming today.

Ex . 明日はいいお天気だってさ。

= Ashita wa ii otenki dattesa.

= I heard the weather would be nice tomorrow.

Note 3) If you are talking to a superior person, you shouldn’t finish a sentence with って ( = tte) or ってさ ( = ttesa).

Instead, you could say,

とのことです ( = tono koto desu)

Ex. マギーは今日、来ないとのことです。

= Maggie wa kyou konai tono koto desu.

Ex. 明日はいいお天気だとのことです。

= Ashita wa ii otenki datono koto desu.

= I heard the weather would be nice tomorrow.

:s: Also we finish the sentence with って in casual conversation when repeating or stressing our own quote showing our frustration/when you emphasize what you are saying, make your point showing your strong feelings)

Ex. だから今、忙しいって

= Dakara ima isogashiindatte ( itterudesho!) !

= I am telling you, I am busy now! / I said I’m busy.

Ex. やめてって！（→male speech やめろって)

= Yametette! / Yamerotte !

= I said, cut it out! / Stop it!

= Hontou datte! (shinjite kureyo!)

= I said it’s true! (Believe me!)

Ex. そんなことできないって

= Sonna koto dekinaitte (nankai ittara iinda)!

= I say I can’t do such a thing! (How many times should I tell you!)

🔸 It is also very common to use this form with,

⇨ ってば ( = tteba)

You add ば ( = ba) to show your frustration.

ってば ( = tteba / ~ だってば ( = datteba) = I said, I am telling you! (This is the end of the conversation!)

E x. 忙しいってば！

= Isogashii tteba

= I told you, I am busy!

Ex. やめてってば！ / やめろってば！(male speech wrought

= Yametetteba! / Yamerotteba!

= I said, cut it out!/stop it!!

Ex. 本当だってば！

= Hontou datteba!

= I’m telling you! It’s true!

Ex. そんなことできないってば！

= Sonna koto dekinaitteba!

= I am telling you I can’t do such a thing!

Sometimes you add it when you talk to someone to get their attention — especially common among girls or children. (Usually, you say this when you keep talking to the person but they don’t pay attention to you.)

Ex. ねえ、マギーってば！

= Nee, Maggie tteba!

= Hey, Maggie. (I’m talking to you.)

There are more ways to use って ( = tte)

長いレッスンになるって言ったでしょ！

=Nagai ressun ni narutte itta desho!

= I told you that it was going to be a long lesson!

Use って ( = tte) is used to define the topics instead of a subject marker, は ( = wa) or というものは ( = toiu mono wa).

( Note : というものは ( = toiumono wa) is used when you give a general idea.)

It is said that it emphasizes the subject which it follows but sometimes it soften the sentence.

Ex. マギーって (→ は )かわいいね。

= Maggie tte （→wa) kawaiine.

= You are so cute, Maggie!

Ex. 仕事って (→ というものは）大変だね。

= Shigoto tte taihen dane.

= Work is hard, isn’t it?

Ex. それって (→ は )どこで買ったの？

= Sore tte （→wa) doko de katta no?

= Where did you buy that?

Ex. 今日って (→ は )日曜日？

= Kyou tte （→wa) nichiyoubi?

= Is it Sunday today?

Ex. 私って (→は)弱い人間なのかなあ。

= Watashi tte（→wa) yowai ningen nano kanaa.

= I wonder if I am a weak person.

Ex. 駅って (→ は )どう行ったらいいの？

= Eki tte（ →wa) dou ittara iino?

= How can I get to the station?

Ex. これって (→ は )何？

= Kore tte （ →wa)nani?

= What is this?

Ex. Twitter って (→( というもの）は )便利だね。

= Twitter tte （→（toiumono)wa) benri dane.

= Don’t you think Twitter is handy?

Ex. AとBの違いって (→ は )なんですか？

= A to B no chigai tte （→wa) nann desuka?

= What is the difference between A and B?

Ex. www って (→( と ) は )どういう意味？

= www tte （→wa) douiu imi?

= What does “www” mean?

Ex. 恋愛って (→ (というもの）は )難しいね。

= Ren’ai tte（→(toiumono) wa) muzukashii!

= Loving someone (Having a relationship) is difficult isn’t it?

Ex. 早起きするって (→( ということ）は）いいことだよね。

= Hayaoki suru tte (→(toiukoto) wa) iikoto dayone.

= Getting up early in the morning is nice, isn’t it?

Ex. 私って ( → (という人間）は）どうしていつもこうなんだろう…

= Watashi tte (→(toiu ningen ) wa) doushite itsumo kounan darou…

= Why do I always end up being like this…

Replace と ( = to) with って ( = tte) in

* ということで ( = toi ukoto de ) so, therefore

* というわけで ( = toiu wake de) so, therefore

⭐️ Slang : Fun way to use って（ = tte)

★ というか ( = to iu ka) → っていうか ( = tte iuka)

This is a colloquial expression and in a way, it seems to be overused by young people nowadays.

というか ( = to iu ka) and っていうか ( = tte iuka) are used when you deny or rephrase what someone or has just said — even if that person is yourself.

Ex. 彼は怒っていたというかむしろ戸惑っていた様にみえた。

=Kare wa okotte ita toiu ka mushiro tomadotte ita you ni mieta.

= He looked more perplexed than angry.

彼は怒っていたっていうかむしろ戸惑っている様にみえた。

= Kare wa okotte itatte iuka mushiro tomadotte iru you ni mieta.

Or you talk back to someone or contradict what someone has just said.

But in colloquial Japanese, people start the sentence with っていうか ( = tte iuka) when they just want to make their point or express their opinion reacting what they just heared or saw.

Ex. っていうかなんか、マギーあんまり行きたくなさそうじゃない？

= Tteiuka nanka Maggie anmari ikitaku nasasoujanai?

= But you don’t seem to be so enthusiastic about going, are you, Maggie?

Ex. ってか ( or つうか）さあ、なんで私がそんなことやらなきゃいけないの？

= Tteka (or Tsuuka) saa nande watashi ga sonnnakoto yaranakya ikenaino?

= With all due respect, why should I do that?

Ex. つうか、お前、何様のつもりだよ！ (rough)

= Tuuka omae nanisama no tsumori dayo!

= I mean who do you think you are?

Ex. ってかその髪型なんだよ！　 (rough)

= Tteka sono kamigata nandayo!

= Oh, what happened to your hair? (Implying it looks bad)

Also when you summarize something

ということは ( = toiu kotowa)

A ) 「彼、もう１ヶ月も家に帰ってこないんだって。」

= Kare mou ikkagetsu mo ie ni kaette konain datte.

= I heard he hasn’t been home for over a month now.

B) 「っていう(or つう）ことは家出したってこと？」

= Tteiu (or tsuu) koto wa iede shitatte koto?

= That means he ran away from home?

誰も私がダンスを踊れるって信じていないみたいね。

= Dare mo watashi ga dansu wo odorerutte shinjite inai mitai ne.

= Nobody seems to believe that I can dance.

でも、ダンスは大好きだって何回も言ってるでしょ！

= Dansu wa daisuki datte nankai mo itterudesho!

= I have told you many times that I love dancing, haven’t I?

Will you be my Patron?

I appreciate your support! サポートありがとう！

1) 母は、父がこの時計を大切に使っていたことを思い出し mother is rememebering >、 2) 「この時計はまだ動くんだって伝えたかったのかも知らないね。」伝えたかった is what father wanted to say 伝えたかったのかもしれない　probably the father wanted to say Mother is assuming what father wanted to say 3) と言って笑いました (mother said that laughing)

Hey Maggie sensei, according to my book, answer b is correct, can you explain why b is correct and a is not correct? As far as I know という　means と言う ( was said ) so isn’t that the same as って( I heard)？

ねえ、この記事見て。昨日のスケート大会、大木選手が： a. 優勝したという or b. 優勝したんだって

Thanks in advance

Yes, as I explained in this lesson you finish the sentence with って to tell someone what you heard. という usually modifies a noun. ~という話 It is only used to quote in a formal sentence. They say ~ / I heard : 日本では玄関で靴を脱ぐという。

Hello Maggie, ok I understand your point but why is the following a formal sentence? 彼の話では、これはこの地方の伝統的な： a 料理だと聞いた b 料理だと言った c 料理だと言われている d 料理だという

In my book it says d is correct 料理だという. I thought という is only used in formal settings, this is something she heard from a guy, this is not formal correct? I chose b, but it was wrong, why is b wrong?

Thx in advance

Yes, using という at the end of a sentence is for writing. You rarely use it for conversation. In conversation, you say これはこの地方の伝統的な料理だって。

(I know you have many questions but as I told you before I can only answer one or two simple questions a day if it is related to my lessons. So please wait for the other questions.お願いします。🙏)

This one post on “-tte” unlocked so many mysteries I’ve encountered trying to understand many of the lines in so many J-dramas and anime at my elementary level of Japanese. Thank you so much, Maggie-sensei! Enjoy your coffee!

Hello John, I’m glad to hear this lesson helps you a little. 😉 And thank you soooooo much for the ☕️. I really appreciate it! ありがとうございます🙏

This is only my first lesson so this question may have already have been answered, but I am confused about how some sentences have the quote then といっています。 But another would have quote then といます。 I am confused about what the いって that is between とandいます？

You mean “といっています” and ” といいます”？

といっています A is saying “~~~~ ” といいます　 A says “~~~ ” (habitual)

Ex. マギーは、忙しいと言っています。 Maggie is saying she is busy.

Ex. マギーは、誘うといつも忙しいといいます。 Whenever I ask Maggie out, she says she is busy.

Thank you again, Maggie-Sensei. It is my second lesson here and I am already considering patreon.

But I have a question: Is there a difference between って、だって, and if there is, what is the difference? Ex: (hearsay) —来ないって　 —元気なんだって　元気だって　(and what is the difference between them here?) By the way: (元気って Is this also possible? Or do I need always “da” because it is a Na-Adjective?) Thank you in advance!

おはよう、Sam! When you quote what you heard you say na-adjective: 元気なんだって (more polite 元気なんですって） noun: 犬なんだって (more polite 犬なんですって） verb : 来ないんだって　(more polite 来ないんですって）

These are very casual speech but in conversation, you sometime omit なん元気だって犬だって来ないって

The meaning is the same. なんだって is more explanatory and you say that when you give some new information expressing your feelings (such as surprised feelings) more.

As for the usage ん, if you want to learn more, please check my how to use ん lesson .

I still have some questions regarding this topic:

1)So the meaning of って andだって is the same and there are no differences between them in meaning or nuance? 2) What is the difference between って、だって and だそうです except the formality? 3）Can I use this form 元気って or do I need “Da” because it is a NA-adjective?

１）　They mean the same. I heard he is not coming today. 今日、彼は、来ないって　今日、彼は来ないんだって　 But as I mentioned in my previous comment, 来ないんだって is more explanatory.

２）　verbって/na-adjective or noun だって＋ the following verbs vary 言っていた・聞いた・伝えて欲しい

３）It depends what comes after. You can quote ~ 元気マギーは元気って聞いたよ。 (It could be Maggie’s cheerful personality or physical or mental state) マギーは元気だって聞いたよ。(talking about Maggie’s physical or mental state)

But you can’t give this information to someone

マギーは元気って (You may hear that in super casual conversation but I would say　だって）マギーは元気だって。is more natural

Thank you so much, Maggie-Sensei! I really appreciate it :)

Anytime, Sam! ☺️

Maggie先生、thank you so much for all the great lessons!

って and と is a grammar form I have been familiar with for a while now, but I decided to revisit this lesson because there’s a particular usage of って I’ve been noticing that I haven’t found directly addressed anywhere.

Sometimes, in casual speech, I notice that people end sentences in って without actually quoting anything, or repeating anything. For example, Hanako says to Nene 「そんな顔すんなって！」He is telling her not to make such a face in an encouraging tone. But why the って? He isn’t relaying information somebody else told him to tell Nene, and it is the first time he is saying that. In another example between a husband and a wife, the husband says to his upset wife 「僕の心の中には君しかいないって！」Again, he isn’t quoting or repeating himself, and he isn’t showing frustration here because he says this with a smile on his face.

I’m not sure exactly, but I think this って is just used for emphasis? Or is there some slight meaning that I am not picking up on. Perhaps Hanako and the husband in this case are rehashing something they’ve said in a previous, unheard conversation or something? Please let me know!

In this lesson, there is a part Also we finish the sentence with って in casual conversation when repeat or stress our own quote showing our frustration. Maybe I will add more explanation. Just like an English expression, “I am telling you”, you use って when you emphasize what you are saying.(not necessary frustration or repeating but making your point or showing your strong feelings) 「そんな顔すんなって！」 I’m telling you, don’t make that face. 僕の心の中には君しかいないって！ I’m telling you, I only have you in my heart.

Ohh, I see. Thank you so much for the speedy reply, Maggie-sensei.

And Merry Christmas! (if you celebrate)

You’re very welcome! Happy Christmas to you,too!! 🎄🎅🐶

Maggie Sensei, I believe many teachers mentioned that we don’t use と at the end of a sentence… but I hear this phrase a lot in drama and anime “なんだと！？” . Would this be an exception to that rule? Thank you!

Hello George,

Ah, OK, right. It is an expression to show your disbelief or surprised feelings for what you just heard. It is like “What? You just said ~ ? ” (No way! / I can’t believe it.)

Polite form ですって？　(なんですって？） casual form だって？　（なんだって？） rough male speech だと？　（なんだと？）

I understand now. Thank you Maggie sensei, appreciate your help!

You’re very welcome! ☺️

Dear Maggie Sensei, I have stumbled upon って particle, but every time its use seems too daunting for me. Could you please explain to me the meaning of って in these 4 sentences below? 1)じゃ今夜は一緒にくらぶに行くってことで。 2)家に来たら料理作ってあげるって誘って。 3)幼稚園の時から一緒だった子が高校から別々だなんて寂しくってー。 4) カワイイ子の友達はカワイイってホントだねー。

Many thanks,

1)じゃ今夜は一緒にくらぶに行くってことで。 quote 行くということで.. 2)家に来たら料理作ってあげるって誘って。 quote 作ってあげると言って / command 誘って（ください） 3)幼稚園の時から一緒だった子が高校から別々だなんて寂しくってー。　reason 寂しくて 4) カワイイ子の友達はカワイイってホントだね　quote カワイイというのは本当だね

Maggie Sensei, I have this doubt as to how と is working inside this sentence.

Is it working as WHEN or as abbreviated form of と思う and then 移している

50年前のゲート事件以来月のかけらの落下による気象変化のために全すべての生活空間を地下へと移している地球人たちにとってコンピューターによってつくられた宇ネットは

Please help me with my doubt.

Hi Pachacutec Hello Pachacutec

生活空間を地下へと移している地球人

This と is a little different from the one I explained in this lesson but you sometimes use と with other particle. にと・へと・かと・でと, etc.

へ is a direction marker. You can say this without と生活空間を地下へ(or に）移す~ You see へと in more written form/formal speech. It might be easier to think this way. ←生活空間を地下へと（Ex. (いうように)場所を）移す Other example マギーに買ったプレゼントマギーにと買ったプレゼント (more literal) ←マギーに（どうかと思って）買ったプレゼント

Does this sentence みんなカジノですったと　 have anything to do with って

I was watching anime and I came across that dialog:

GIrl Bounty Hunter: じゃ何か？ Boy Bounty Hunter: 俺たちから持ち逃げした金は　　みんなカジノですったと。 Girl Bounty Hunter: 金は天下の回り物って言うでしょ。

I am unsure whether the guy is referring to です　or って　with たと

よろしくお願いします。　　　　　　　　　　　　　

It is a kind of old male man’s speech/or dialect to say　って He is telling someone what happened. ~すったんだって〜すったらしい〜すったんだそうだ →すったと

Hi Maggie Sensei,

I would like to double-check what って means here at the beginning of the sentence: なんでスマホの目覚まし鳴らなかったの？４回も鳴るようにセットしてたのに。ってもしかしてまた止めちゃった？

I’ve already read your comment to another fellow learner about it being place at the start of a sentence. You said it can mean “but”, “anyway”, “then” dejpending on the context.

Therefore, would it be right to say it means “then I must have turned it off”?

Thank you so much. Your blog is a lifesaver!!! :)

Hello Sharon,

That is a very colloquial usage of って.　 I will show you how it changes,

ということは (That* means) *”That” here means “the fact that alarm clock didn’t make any sound.) →Casual っていうことは →Casual　ってことは →more casual って

ありがとうございます！

どういたしまして♪　😊

Dear Maggie 先生 could you maybe explain the difference between the sentence “吟遊詩人が村に来てるって？” and “吟遊詩人が村に来てる?”? What does the って change in the first one? Thank you very much for all the hard work you put into creating all those detailed explanations!

Hello Simon, 1) 吟遊詩人が村に来てる?　Is a/the bard is in the village? (Just making sure if a/the bard is in the village.) 2) 吟遊詩人が村に来てるって？ I heard a/the bard is in the village, is that right?

1) checking the information is right. 2) checking the information you heard is right.

どうもありがとうございます！

どういたしまして、Simon! :)

I’ve come across a phrase today that looks like a combination of forms that I’ve never seen before:

「ならどこへでも行っちまいよ！清々するよ！」

行っちまい looks like it might be a contraction of 行ってしまう in the -まい form.

I thought -まい means “doesn’t intend to”, but that doesn’t really fit in with the sentence or the general conversation, so I’m a little bit confused…

Any help you can offer would be, as usual, greatly appreciated :)

Hello Peter I think the sentence should be 行っちまいなよ Yes, 行っちまう is a contraction of 行ってしまう It is a rough male speech so you should avoid using it but I bet you see that a lot in manga or TV drama. 行っちまいな is a command form (行ってしまいなさい） Other example

早く宿題をやってしまいなさい→早く宿題をやっちまいな (male speech/rough) 全部食べてしまいなさい→全部食べちまいな (male speech/rough)

Thanks you so much – that makes a lot more sense given the context of the conversation.

You were right – I checked the sentence again and it did have a -な that I missed :D

Thanks again! Peter.

P.S. I think I posted this one the wrong topic…sorry! I meant to post it on the ちゃう & ちゃった lesson, but I’ve got 3 different ones open on my browser…

Good! Problem solved. Don’t worry about where you write. I will read all the comments anyway. 😉 Have a great day!

田中さんって、に本日に10年も住んでいたんだって。それにしては日本語があまり上手じゃないね。

What does the って mean in the above example?

田中さんって(1) 日本に１０年も〜だって(2)

First って (1) is topics, 田中さんは〜 The second って(2) is to quote what you heard.

Hello Maggie Sensei.

How to say this in Japanese? Tom said he was happy that Susan bought a new car.

Is it like this? Tomは、Susanが新しい車を買って嬉しいと言っていました。

Thanks in advance!

Yes, that is correct. (Or 言いました。）

Thank you !

You’re welcome! ☺️

Hi Maggie-sensei,

For all the examples in this lesson which have だって, are they actually the same as usage 1 in another lesson How to use だって ( = datte)?

“1) to quote what someone says: When you quote what you have heard* When you quote what you have heard”

Another question is what is the difference between Noun + って vs Noun + だって? Is the former used when you want to talk about the noun and the latter used when you want to quote the noun?

Hi Chang, Yes, I did cover a little in my だって lesson this usage. (The usage 1))

Ah, good question. noun + って／noun +だって

When you quote “明日は雨” →天気予報で明日は、雨って言ってたよ。 When you quote “明日は雨だ／雨です” →天気予報で明日は、雨だって言ってたよ。

The meaning is the same but だって emphasizes the speaker’s feelings more. And you can say 明日は雨だって。 But you can’t say X明日は雨って

The same thing with adjectives and verbs.

彼がマギーはきれいだって言ってたよ。彼がマギーはきれいって言ってたよ　(more conversational)

雨が降るんだって (X 雨が降るんだって言ってたよ is not natural) 雨が降るって言ってたよ。

But when you express “even”

亀だって泳げるよ You can’t say

Thank you! ^ ^

Maggie sensei,

Hello again.

May I ask ２more questionｓ of using って for indirect speech. (1) Is that we　always need to change the です・ますof somebody’s quote to the casual form (ending with る・た・ない） then add って？

For example A: 彼氏と別れました。

Is it possible to make an indirect speech like Indirect speech : A さんは彼氏と別れましたって言いました。

Or we always need to change the quote to casual form A さんは彼氏と別れたって言いました。

(2) I want to ask the same thing with とのこと。とのこと is used for indirect speech to the superior. But can we say

A さんは彼氏と別れましたとのこと

Or we need to change the quote to casual form as always.

A さんは彼氏と別れたとのことです。

Thanks Maggie sensei for always helping us.

Hello again :)

Aさんは彼氏と別れましたって言いました。 Aさんは彼氏と別れたって言いました。

Though we sometimes see masu-form in quotes in stories, you don’t have to use masu-form. It will be more natural to say Aさんは彼氏と別れたと言いました。or 言っていました。（言っていました　describes the situation better.)

I change って→と because って is casual and ました is formal

If you want to use って the rest of the sentence should be casual as well. Aさんは彼氏とわかれたって言ってたよ。

（２）A さんは彼氏と別れたとのことです。is better.

Thanks Maggie sensei much much much ! I understand them :)

I have a question about てば. Can we use this てば in the end of sentence for quoting the other person’s saying.

For example Maggie が来ないってば！

Or we just use てば to quote our saying like だからいそがしいってば！

Thanks Maggie sensei as usual.

You use ってば　not to quote what other person said. You only use it when you make your point. (I’m telling you ~ )

マギー先生、レッスンはいつもありがとうございます。ちょっと質問がある: How often do we use ‘tte’ to replace the ‘ha’ particle in day to day conversation? I hear it quite a bit, but i’m unsure of whether I’m misinterpreting it or not

The answer is quite often. But it depends on who you are talking to. If you are talking to someone superior, you should stick to は

Ex. 明日の宿題はなんですか？ (When you are talking to your teacher. ) Ex. 明日の宿題ってなに？ (When you are talking to your friends.)

授業を書いてくれてありがとうございます。ちょっと質問があるんですが、「って」と「ってさ」の違いは何ですか。

後、「さ」の使い方は何ですか。ちょっと難しいですね。「さ」のポストもありますか。

こんにちは勇士！「さ」のレッスンはまだありません。そのうち作りますね。 There are a couple of functions of さ but when you tell someone what you heard, you can add さ as a suffix. The nuance difference is very subtle. For example when you tell someone “Maggie Sensei is busy.”

I heard Maggie Sensei is busy. マギー先生は忙しいんだって。マギー先生は忙しいんだってさ。 by just adding さ, you can express “Oh well…/ that’s how it works/ We can’t do anything about it/ whatever” type of feelings.

そうなんですか。「さ」のレッソンをお待ちしています ^_^。

So it is a bit like using 「〜んだ」とか「〜(だ)から」、 right?

「さ」の使い方はいくつかありますが、そうですね。「〜んだ」に近いですね。

どうも有難うございます ^_^

どういたしまして、勇士！ :)

Hello Maggie sensei. Back at you with another question.

っていうかなんか、マギーあんまり行きたくなさそうじゃない？

In this example sentence, I see なんか placed after っていうか.

What is the usage of なんか here. I have read the なんか lesson and there are 3 main usages listed there. Which one is most relevant here?

The usage 6) 6) to start a conversation with なんか ( = nanka) putting your thoughts together.

In my なんか lesson, Conchita was saying 「てか、なんか、最近忙しいんだよね。」 = Teka, nanka, saikin isogashiin dayone. = I don’t know why but I’ve been busy, you know.

てか is another casual form of っていうか You often say ってか・てかなんか together when you put your thoughts together, “you know” “Like~”, etc. It is a very casual speech.

Oh thanks Maggie. Japanese is very deep!

You’re very welcome, Dennis! :)

As usual, I came here looking for some more information when I wasn’t sure somewhere else :) So I am listening to an audio course and it has said: tte can mean speaking of; it can substitute for wa as a topic marker, but only if the predicate expresses the speaker’s emotive evaluation/judgement; e.g., you can say, Keikosan tte hen na hito desu, but you cannot say, Keikosan tte sensei desu.

You have also given the example of マギーって (→は)かわいいね = You are so cute, Maggie!

But there is also 今日って (→は)日曜日？= Is it Sunday today?

The second example sounds more factual rather than just your own judgement/feeling, so I’m not sure I understand when it can/cannot be used now.

Hi Cindy! Welcome back! :)

When you check something, you can also use って even for factual things. That means it is not natural to say 今日って日曜日です。= Kyou tte nichiyoubi desu. But when you are not sure what day is today, you can say 今日って日曜日？ Also as you said, you can’t say けいこさんって先生です。( = Keiko santte sensei desu.) but you can say けいこさんって先生？= Keiko san tte sensei? = Is Keiko teacher?

You can attach the suffix http://142.93.68.150/2013/09/08/casual-suffix-%E3%80%9C%E3%81%A3%E3%81%91kke-%E3%80%80/ at the end as well. 今日って日曜日だっけ？　　( more polite 今日って日曜日でしたっけ？）けいこさんって先生だっけ？ (more polite けいこさんって先生でしたっけ？）

Oh I see, thank you Maggie Sensei! Also thank you for the link to っけ suffix, I will check that out :)

You’re very welcome! :)

Hello Maggie Sensei, it’s me again with another question.

今日、宿題ないんだって。明日から暑くなるんだって。

In these 2 examples, I understand the grammar. I also understand the ん and its usage. But why is だ added to the end?

今日、宿題ないんって。明日から暑くなるんって。

Is it because when you say a sentence and end it with ん (orの) you have to say だ (or です) after?

Hi Dennis You don’t say 今日、宿題ないんって。明日から暑くなるんって。 But you say 今日、宿題ないって。/今日、宿題ないんだって。明日から暑くなるって。/ 明日から暑くなるんだって。

んだ・んです sounds more explanatory and you can express your feelings such as surprised feelings. Check my ん lesson .

I love this site very very helpfull😊😊😊😊😊☺

Thank you!!! I’m glad you like my site! 💕

Wow, just… wow! They don’t make lessons as good and complete as this one in my Japanese class! It has been really helpful! Now I understand a lot of transcript interviews better! However, despite this wholesome lesson, there’s one line in one interview that it’s still giving me troubles. I hope you could help me with that.

It’s this one (to put you in context, it’s a fight promoter talking about women in MMA):「女の人もあんなに強くて戦えるって…！」, but then continues: 「総合格闘技って男性のスポーツだと思ってました…！」 I’m pretty sure the って from the second sentence [総合格闘技って—] is used as a topic marker and it’s interchangeable with は… But I don’t know about the って from the first sentence [—戦えるって]. My first guess was that it was used in the “I heard…/They say…” sense, and thus the first line would mean something like “I heard that women are strong and able to fight too (like men are)”. However, that doesn’t connect very well with the second line, I feel that an adversative conjunction like しかし or でも is lacking (in order to say “BUT I used to think that MMA was a sport for males” ). I can’t think of any other satisfactory meanings for that って from the first sentence, though. Would you help me, Maggie-sensei?

Hello Ichijiku

You are right. て in the second one 総合格闘技って男性のスポーツだと思ってました…！ is a topic marker, 総合格闘技というものは男性のスポーツだと思っていました。I used to think MMA was a male sport.

女の人もあんなに強くて戦えるって…

This is an unfinished sentence. It follows the speaker’s surprised feelings. 女の人もあんなに強く戦えるって（→戦えるのは = topic *）…すごいなあ。・信じられない・驚きだ

*You can rephrase it 戦えるとは・戦えるなんて

I hope it helps…

Oh, yup, it surely helped me! I think I have finally understood the meaning of that って from the 1st line that was giving me so much trouble. Heh, Japanese people sure love to leave their sentences open… Once again, thanks for the lesson, for the help, and for the fast reply too! マギー先生すごいな～!

Hi sensei, sort of a question about a sentence I saw while reading.

だから、雑談はおろか、本当なら、リサを見かけたところで無視を決め込んだってよかったのだ。

Am I correct to assume that the って　here refers to the というのは　outlined in the lesson? It seems to be the only feasible option given that って　is immediately followed by an adjective（よっかた）。

Thanks for the lessons, they have been of great helps.

＠drumpenguin

Hi drumpenguin

Ah, that って is ても・でも = even (you do something)・てもよかった→ってよかった　hypothetical: you could have done something 無視を決めこんでもよかった→無視を決めこんだってよかった

Maggie Sensei, can you please explain to me the usage of ってわけ。I tried looking for a clear explanation online but to no avail. I know it’s the shortened for of ～というわけ。But I’m confused as to how you properly use it. I often hear it being used at the end of the sentence. Can you give examples? Thanks in advance.

You are right. ってわけ is a casual form of 〜というわけです・〜というわけだ。

You use it when you casually explain * why/how something happened * why/how someone does/did something. * how things work and conclude with ってわけ = That’s why. * sentence ってわけ = ~~~ That’s why./ That means ~ /It’s because ~~.

Ex. 彼女、失恋したみたい。だから髪を切ったってわけ。 = かのじょ、しつれんしたみたい。だからかみをきったってわけ。 = I heard she had a broken heart. That’s why she had her hair cut, you know.

Ex. 隣の家族は東京に引っ越したよ。つまりもう誰もあの部屋には住んでいないってわけ。 = となりのかぞくはとうきょうにひっこしたよ。つまりもうだれもあのへやにはすんでいないってわけ。 = The next door family moved to Tokyo. That means nobody is living in that room, you know.

Ex. A: どうして彼はツアーで日本に行くのかな？ = I wonder why he is going to Japan in a group tour. B: ツアーの方が安かったってわけ。 = It’s because group tour is cheaper. That’s why.

Pardon me, sensei:

I have a somewhat difficult grammar problem in a message I want to send. I want to write a sentence like “this is the thing that you said was [something] / that you called [something]”. Basically, using something specific said by a specific person as a descriptive clause.

Hello, Double

You can use this pattern “this is the thing that you said was [something] これ＋は・が(person’s name) がsomethingといっていたものです。（ものだ）

Ex. これは、マギーが見たいといっていた映画です。

that you called [something]” これ＋は・が(person’s name) がsomethingと呼んでいたものです。（ものだ）

Ex. これは、マギーが弟と呼んでいた子猫です。

Konbanha Maggie Sensei Shitsumon Ga Arimasu Yo:

For Example: “He Went” (Kare Ha Itta). “He Also Went” (Kare Mo Itta).

@Kibounonaka

Ohayou, Kibounonaka.

You can’t say “彼（かれ）っても行った” (Kare -Tte- Mo Itta) for “He Also Went”

But you can quote using って, I heard he also went. 彼も行ったんだって= Kare mo ittan datte.

Also it is very conversational but you can have the place where he went as a subject,　(In this case you use double tte)

あのパーティーって彼も行ったんだって。 (Ano paatii tte kare mo ittan datte) As for the party, I heard he also went.

Mou Wakarimashita. Arigatou Gozaimashita Sensei !happyface! :yy: :pika: :pika:

@Kibounokata

You’re welcome! :)

tsuyoku naru kara ne tte ; HOW mean English kara ne tte ?

@WILLIAM PEDRONI

It depends on the context. but “He/She said he/she will be sronger.”

Could you help me with this – がっての憧れ

I can’t tell if that means idolizing or longing for in a more romantical manner with those particals

When tte is added after an imperative like in やめろって, does it always mean that it’s the second time that we ask the person to stop? Or could we add tte the first time we ask the person to stop, just to add force to the command?

Hello etoile37! Both! You use it to repeat what you said or for the first time.

You’re welcome!

This was exactly what I was looking for! (thanks etoile for asking lol).

I was reading something and this person used “adj-tte” even when he wasn’t repeating something he said before, but for the first time so I took it as if it was just to emphasize.

Thanks Maggie sensei for this whole class !

Hello, Lu! You had the same question as etoile? I guess I should have included that usage in the lesson. :)

Ohayou, sensei ^^

it’s me asking a question again ^^

from what I learned in this lesson, we can drop all the main verbs when we want to pass along an information, right sensei?

then this sentence that I found 授業の説明もあるって are actually the shortened version from this sentence? 授業の説明もあるって聞いたよ

@just a novel lover’s

おはよう！！ Q : then this sentence that I found 授業の説明もあるって are actually the shortened version from this sentence? 授業の説明もあるって聞いたよ or 授業の説明もあるって言っていたよ。

Yes, that’s right! :)

thank you sensei ^^ now I can be at ease

Maggie-sensei

help me again (T-T)

what the use of がい in 頼りがいがありそうだなぁ

cannot we just said 頼りがありそうだなぁ

sorry sensei my sentence was not complete T_T

this is the right one *tehe*

さっき言ったでしょ？頼りがいがありそうだなぁって

Hi again. 頼る = tayoru= means “to depend (on something/someone) 甲斐/かい・がい= kai/gai = means “worth/ effect/use”

頼りがいがある means someone “dependable/ reliable”

Ex. 彼は頼りがいがある人です。= He is a reliable person. You can also say 頼りになる=tayori ni naru Ex. 彼は頼りになる人です。= Kare wa tayori ni naru hito desu. But you can’t say 頼りがある

Other words with 甲斐(がい・かい）＊やり甲斐(=yarigai)がある= worth doing ＊生き甲斐(=ikigai)がある= something worth living for

thanks Maggie-sensei, you have clear my confusion

note to myself:

you have use as a person for me to depend on = You are a reliable person (LOL)

You’re welcome. I guess I should make a mini lesson on 甲斐 sometime.

I’ll look forward for it sensei ^^

Hello Rhi, Good question! Though there are some cases you can use the speech the way it is, 父は「早く食べろ！」と言いました。→父は早く食べろと言った。

when we rephrase the sentence in indirect speech, you usually have to change the verb form. And yes, ~ ように言った・言いました　is a very common way to change it to indirect speech. 母は「早く食べなさい」と言いました。→母は早く食べるように言いました。

It is not just imperative form. You may have to summarize the speech changing the verbs, speech form and etc. to make a indirect speech.

But there are cases you can use the quote as the way it is.

Thank you so much for explaining this lesson!! I actually have a Final tomorrow! I’ve been trying to understand って言う・聞く・書く, but it was hard to understand. Thank you for clarifying!!

Oh your name is Maggie,too? Hello Maggie! I’m happy to hear this lesson helped you a little. 試験がんばってね！

マギー先生こんにちは～　お元気でしたか。

私はたくさん日本語を勉強しました。今日は受身形と使役動詞を習いました。でも、昨日かちょっと(むちゃくちゃ-confused)になってきたんですが、一つの質問に答えて頂けませんか。「うん、日本語で留学してみたいなと思ってね。」どうしてこの文章は「て形」と終るんですか。易しそうもんだいが、どこにも答えを見つけられないんです。　＠＿＠

Um my question isn’t related to this lesson, but I hope it’s not a problem for asking this here. So why that sentence ends in te 思うって form i feel its a silly question, but I can’t find answer to it and I can’t sleep because of that :D Just kidding hehe. Ahh its so hard to absorb so much information, maybe I forgot it somewhere along the way.

I was exploring Maggies site and, wow its just to good to be true..so many information, detailed explanation and those cute pictures and so on.. You really are putting so much effort, time and doing that with passion and love and because of that I’d like to thank from my bottom of the heart for doing this! 「礼」本当にありがとうございます！

ところで、英語は母国語がじゃないから、間違いをごめなさい

こんにちは、チャド！はい、私は元気ですよ♪　チャドも元気でしたか？優しいコメントをありがとう！とても励みになります。（ちょっと(むちゃくちゃ-confused)になってきたんですが、「ちょっと頭が混乱してきました。」でいいと思いますよ。）

OK, let’s work on your question.

There are many ways to add ね

1) Asking an agreement from the listener verb plain form + ね

Ex. 日本に行きたいね。 = Nihon ni ikitaine. = I’d love to go to Japan. / It would be nice if I could go to Japan. (Don’t you agree?/You,too, right?) (more polite)

Ex. 日本に行きたいですね。 = Nihon ni ikitai desune

2) Telling someone what you are going to do/ Expressing your will/intention

Ex. 来年、日本に行きますね。 = Rainen nihon ni ikimasu ne.

Ex. 明日、迎えに行くね。 = Ashita mukae ni ikune! = I will pick you up tomorrow, OK?

3) Asking someone to do something

Ex. 明日、迎えに来てね。 = Ashita mukae ni kitene. = Pick me up tomorrow, OK?

Ex. 是非、日本に留学してね。 = Zehi nihon ni ryuugaku shitene. = Please come study in Japan by all means.

4) Telling a story/ To tell someone what happened or explaining why you do something.

verb て form + ね

A:「どうしてこの店で買わないの？」 = Doushite kono mise de kawanaino? = Why don’t you buy at this store?

B : 「他の店の方が安いと思ってね。」 = Hoka no mise no hou ga yasui to omotte ne.

(more polite : 思いましてね）

(2) A : 「ちょっと熱が出てね。明日は会えないよ。」 = Chotto netsu ga dete ne. Ashita wa aenai yo. = I have a slight fever so I can’t see you tomorrow. （more polite 出ましてね）

So the usage you want to know is this one. No. 4)

もう素晴らしいレッスンありがとう、マギー先生＾＾ちょっと質問がある…

Is there a difference between ~ということです and ~とのことです? Since both indicate something you heard or read.

Ex. マギーは今日、来ないとのことです。マギーは今日、来ないということです。

Is there a difference in nuance/meaning between these two sentences?

Also, can you replace ~って or ~とのことです with verbs other than ~と言う or ~と聞いた? For example, ~と思う?

Ex. マギーは今日、来ないんだってさ/マギーは今日、来ないとのことです—> “I don’t think Maggie will come today.” (Could this translation also be correct?)

Hello Marianne! Yes, there is a difference Ex. 1) マギーは今日、来ないとのことです。 I heard Maggie was not coming today. (delivering a message) Ex. 2) マギーは今日、来ないということです。It/That means Maggie is not coming today. (explaining the reason)

You can study more about ということ in this lesson

Ex. マギーは今日、来ないんだってさ (very casual) /マギーは今日、来ないとのことです (formal)

Yes they mean the same. “I heard Maggie is not coming today.”

You can use と or って with the verbs that you can quote, 言う、聞く、思う、知る(find out)、ほのめかす (imply)、説明する(explain)、書く(write),etc.

わかった。有益な説明ありがとう！

@Marianne どういたしまして。（有益な= You meant “useful”? )

I actually meant “informative”… sorry about that T_T How should I say “Thanks for the useful/informative explanation?”

A lot of people use the word 有益な when they send me a message on Twitter so I have been wondering what word they were trying to say. 有益な is too formal. 役に立つ is more common.

How about just say とても参考になりました。ありがとう（ございました）。

And you are very welcome! :)

“とても参考になりました”? (It very became a reference)? Hmm… does とても meaning anything other than “very”?

参考になる means “to be informative” So it will sound more natural than saying とても役に立つ情報をありがとう。

Oh, ok! Now I understand… Thanks again, Maggie sensei. You’re the best!

You’re very welcome, Marianne. :)

こんにちわ先生！I’m in my final year in highschool and I’m totally confused with the indirect/casual speech. Do you have any pointers for me to easily convert a polite sentence to a casual one? Especially ones with ください, and others like that. 助け、ほんとにむずかしい！！！

Hello sensei, is it possible to explain the terms ‘desutte’? I think I came across this word in your forum but there werent any lessons regarding to it. Can you tell me how to use and the function of desutte? Thank you so much.

Hello Anna! I added the information in the lesson. So please check it. :)

Basically it adds the politeness. だって→ですって Ex. マギー、明日来ないんだって = I heard Maggie is not coming tomorrow. ↓ マギー、明日来ないんですって。

Hi, I love your explanation >.< But I have a question. If you use って in the beginning of a sentence, how would you say it in English? For example, って、何描いってんの？What does it emphasise?

Hello Hina Ah, we only start a sentence with って in colloquial conversation but it’s usually ってか、っていうか. (I wrote about it in a couple of lessons. (Ex. 若者言葉 lesson . No. 5) Your example sentence, って、何描いてんの？ It is not actually emphasizing anything. It means light “but”, “anyway”, “then” depends on the conversation.

Hi, Maggie-sensei! I don’t understand the last part. Why do you put “datte” in a sentence and how would I go about using it?

If you could explain it like I’m a baby, that’d be helpful since I’m still a beginner at Japanese. I can’t grasp some of these concepts very well and I don’t exactly get what kind of sentence counts as a “summary”.

>”I heard he hasn’t been home for over a month now.”

I’m not exactly sure what makes this a summary. Does this mean that it’s sort of a conversation wrap up after you’ve explained your story? (or something along the lines of that)

One more thing, I found this usage of “tte” in a song and was just curious how this usage works.

“itsu made mo mamotte iku”

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hello Brad, OK, for example you are talking to someone about Mr.A. and that person tells you “He hasn’t been home for over month.” and maybe you get some other information about Mr.A from that person. Now when you see someone else and tell that person what you have just heard about Mr.A. You say “I heard he hasn’t been home for over a month now.”

So the information you want to give is ↓ he hasn’t been home for over a month now = もう一ヶ月も家に帰っていない = Mou ikkagetsu mo ie ni kaette inai

↓ I heard he hasn’t been home for over a month now. 私は彼はもう一ヶ月も家に帰っていないと聞きました。 = Watashi wa Kare wa mou ikkagetsu mo ie ni kaette inai to kikimashita. ↓(More conversational) 彼はもう一ヶ月も家に帰っていないって。 = Kare wa mou ikkagetsu mo ie ni kaette inaitte ↓ (Stress the information.) 彼はもう一ヶ月も家に帰っていないんだって。 = Kare wa mou ikkagetsu mo ie ni kaette inain datte.

So the function of って here is “passing the information” but as you said, it could be a summary of what you have heard.

***** Your second question : いつまでも守っていく “itsu made mo mamotte iku”

OK, this って is a part of the conjugation of 守る

守っていく守ってきた守っていた守ってあげる etc.

There are many verbs that conjugate with って

to know = 知る = shiru 知っていく= shitteiku 知っていた = shitteita to cut = 切る = kiru 切っていく = kitte iku 切って下さい = kitte kudasai

You will see this conjugation while studying Japanese grammar.

I hope this helps…

Maggie Sensei

Does って言うかＭｅａｎｓ In other words?/ How do I say it?

I heard this in a variety show too, but could not figure out what it means still, or how it’s usually used.

教えてください。ありがとう～

Ah, yes, って言うか means “in other words/How do I say it” , “But” or sometimes no meaning. The casual forms are is ってか・つうか. If you are interested in learning more, I mentioned in the following in this lesson

* 若者言葉 (wakamono kotoba)

and I explained more in this lesson. * 曖昧（あいまい） *

So please check them.

Hi Maggie sensei. This is one useful lesson however, I notice you used to itte imashita and to iimashita for both sentences. Can you tell us when to use these both verbs correctly? I have been reading up on those and each sites explained differently. Thanks alot though!

Hello, Anna! I am now on vacation so I will answer your question when I come back to Japan,OK? まっててね。

OK, sorry it took me a while to get back to you. So you want to know the difference between 1) Aさんは「〜〜〜」と言いました。（or 言った）A said “~~” Aさんは〜〜〜と言いました。A said ~~~ 2) Aさんは〜〜〜と言っていました。(or 言っていた）A said (that)~~~ / A was saying ~~~

They both quote what A said. The difference : 1: 1) you are just talking about the fact that A said something (It is often used in a writing form, ex.novels.) 2) When you pass on what A said to someone.

or 1) A said something 2) A was saying something (The speaker is describing the condition, the time when A was saying something.)

You can give the listeners stronger impression of the quote with 2)

Thanks for replying back to me! Please provide more lessons in the future. Would really appreciate it! Love you lots! どうもありがとうございました!

どういたしまして！ Many more lessons are coming! Love you,too! ❤

どういたしまして！ Many more lessons are coming! Love you,too!! ❤

maggie sensei, i have a similar question as anna-san regarding 言う, 言った, 言ってる and 言ってた. but it will be a long one. i am not sure if it is ok to post here.

Leave a question here anyway. I will help you as much as I can.

I am confused with the correct tense to use for the word say. There are 言う, 言ってる, 言った, 言ってた. Let’s go through one by one.

言う – I think this is the least used tense for say. If the present tense is to be used, it will most likely be 言ってる rather than 言う. Under what kind of situation would one use 言う?

言ってる – The most common phrase heard in drama will be 何言ってんの and 言ってるでしょ. Is there a time reference as to when one can still use 言ってる; after which the past tense 言った or 言ってた has to be used? For example, 何言ってんの is said right after the other party said something unacceptable. On the other hand, 言ってるでしょ is said with regards to something mentioned some time back.

言ってた/言った – I was taught in school when we quote what a third party said, we must use 言ってた. And 言った is used in like books, etc. So far so good; but only if it was that straightforward. I have seen/heard of 言ってた and 言った being used interchangeably, although majority was still 言ってた.

I guess the best way to make this clear is to use examples. I created some scenarios. Could Maggie sensei please correct them accordingly?

Scenario 1) A and B are talking 01 A: 明日日本に行きます (I will go Japan tomorrow) 02 B: すみません。何と言いましたか (Sorry. What did you say?) [Can B say 何と言っていましたか also?) 03 A: 明日日本に行くと言いました (I said I will go Japan tomorrow) [Can A say 明日日本に行くと言っていました?) 04 B: Cさは (What about C-san?) 05 A: 行きません (C-san will not go) 06 B: Cさんは何とお言っていましたか (What did C-san say?) [Can B say Cさんは何とお言いましたか?] 07 A: Cさんは病気だと言っていました (C-san said he is sick) [Can A say Cさんは病気だと言いました?] 08 B: では、明日ゴルフに行きましょう (Let’s go play golf tomorrow) 09 A: 明日日本に行くと言ったでしょう (Didn’t I say I am going to Japan tomorrow) [Can A say 明日日本に行くと言っていたでしょう or 明日日本に行くと言ってるでしょう?]

Scenario 2) A and B are meeting at a cafe and C is a waiter. A only speaks Japanese, C only speaks English and B speaks both English and Japanese 01 Waiter C: What would you like to drink? 02 A: 彼は何と言っていましたか (What did he say?) [Is this correct or should A say 彼は何と言いましたか or even 彼は何と言っていまか? 03 B: 彼は何を飲みますかと言っていました (He said what would you like to drink?) [Same as above, should B use と言っていましたか or even と言っていまか?] 04 B: Lemonade, please 05 A: 何と言いましたか (What did you say?) [Can A say 何と言っていましたか?] 06 B: レモネードと言いました (I said Lemonade) [Can B say レモネードと言っていました?]

First I have a lesson on verb tense where I explained the difference of the tenses so please check it or review.

The difference between 言って（い）た/ 言った

言った = Someone said ~ : You use it when you describe someone said something. (focusing on the action on saying something.) / Someone just said something.

言っていた・言ってた = I heard someone was saying : When you recall the moment when someone says something and tell the third person what you heard. / Someone was saying ~ (in past) (It is more explanatory than 言った)

When you are talking about what you heard in past, you use 言ってた more than 言った。

マギー先生がそう言っていたよ。I heard Maggie Sensei was saying so.

When you are talking to Y and say “But you said ~~”, you could say both

a: でもこの間、そう言ったじゃない。(But you said so the other day.) b : でもこの間、そう言って（い）たじゃない。(But you were saying so the other day.)

Scenario 1) A and B are talking 01 A: 明日日本に行きます (I will go Japan tomorrow) 02 B: すみません。何と言いましたか (Sorry. What did you say?)

→You can also say 今、何て言いましたか？

[Can B say 何と言っていましたか also?)

→Strange. Because you just heard that. 03 A: 明日日本に行くと言いました (I said I will go Japan tomorrow)

[Can A say 明日日本に行くと言っていました?)

→Strange. (If you quote what someone said in past, you can say 言っていました。）

04 B: Cさんは (What about C-san?) 05 A: 行きません (C-san will not go) 06 B: Cさんは何とお言っていましたか (What did C-san say?)

→OK, except you don’t say お言う. The polite form of 言う is おっしゃる

おっしゃっていましたか？

[Can B say Cさんは何とお言いましたか?]

→Cさんは何と、おっしゃっいましたか？ Yes, possible. 07 A: Cさんは病気だと言っていました (C-san said he is sick)

[Can A say Cさんは病気だと言いました?]

→Again, A is telling B what C said in past so 言っていました is better. However, if the question is その時、Cさんはなんとおっしゃいましたか？ then you can say 病気だと言いました。 08 B: では、明日ゴルフに行きましょう (Let’s go play golf tomorrow) 09 A: 明日日本に行くと言ったでしょう (Didn’t I say I am going to Japan tomorrow)

[Can A say 明日日本に行くと言っていたでしょう

→This conversation just happened so “I just said I am going to Japan tomorrow” is 言ったでしょう is better.

But if this conversation happens a few days later and B asks the same question, A said 言っていたでしょう。

or 明日日本に行くと言ってるでしょう?]

→Means “I am telling you I am going to Japan tomorrow.” So it sounds strange unless B repeats asking A to go play golf and A gets frustrated.

[Is this correct or should A say 彼は何と言いましたか or even 彼は何と言っていまか?

→If it just happened, I would use 今、何て言いましたか？（今、何て言った？）

But if A asks a few minutes later after the waiter leaves the table, さっき、何て言っていましたか？

03 B: 彼は何を飲みますかと言っていました (He said what would you like to drink?)

[Same as above, should B use と言っていましたか or even と言っていまか?]

→Again, if the conversation happens right after the waiter leaves, you can say 言いました but if A asks after passing some time, 言っていました。

04 B: Lemonade, please 05 A: 何と言いましたか (What did you say?)

[Can A say 何と言っていましたか?]

→I assume A asks right after B says something so 言いましたか？ is better.

06 B: レモネードと言いました (I said Lemonade) [Can B say レモネードと言っていました?]

→For the same reason above, 言いました is better.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Maggie-sensei for painstakingly answering my queries. I hope this would be useful to other learners who had the same difficulty as me.

Sorry, お in scenario 1 line 06 was a typo error.

I am more clear with when one should use 言ってた over 言った or vice versa. I am less clear when both can be used like in scenario 1 line 06 and 07. Although A and B is talking about a third party C, 言った can still be used as per your explanation.

@changk 06/07

Ah, OK, it is hard to tell the situation from the script but If A, B and C are together and B couldn’t catch what C just said for some reason, 何て言いましたか？ If it passes time after C said something (for example next day), 何て言っていましたか？

Maggie-sensei, I was reading this blog and came across this sentence:

夫は Monitor Lizard （オオトカゲの意味）と言っていますがコモドドラゴンではないし～こちらも名前が分からないのでご存知の方いたら是非教えて下さい!

Why did the blogger use 言っています rather than 言っていました? The full article is found here: http://ameblo.jp/singapore-times/entry-11839720277.html

Hi changk Actually you can use them both. The writer’s husband still insists the creature is Monitor Lizard, so writer used 言っています. But if the writer brings up the fact as a past event, she can use 言っていました。言っていました。 usually used with time expression which represents “past” such as 昨日、先週、去年,さっきまで, 今まで、etc.

Please, never close this site down *O* It is such a perfect place for people learning japanese… Thank you for all the effort you’re putting into it ^-^/

@Flo Thank you for your nice comment. This site is still under maintenance but once it is fixed, I will keep making lessons.

hi, maggie sensei nice to meet you in your site, 昨年、一応大学生に卒業したが、日本語を勉強するの機会がほとんどないので、また本を読むと大変だと思うので、Maggie先生のおかげで本当に助かりました。毎日このサイトを勉強しに見ますよ。ありがとうございます。（＾＾）

こんにちは！はじめましてIrma! 毎日このサイトに勉強に来てくれてありがとう！！大学を卒業しても日本語を勉強し続けて下さいね。

nan datteba yo ?!?! (Naruto)

@sunamiassault

That is a peculiar way of Naruto speech. Only for that animation. When he emphasizes what he wants to say he adds だってばよ. Like “I am telling you!” I said ~”

うわああ、分かる、分かる！It makes so much more sense now. XD

このレッスンを作て、ありがとう!(That was probably all sorts of wrong. Hee)

よかった、ハリちゃんに「分かる、分かる」って言ってもらってうれしいです！（almost! このレッスンを作て、ありがとう→このレッスンを作ってくれてありがとう）

Thank you for making this lesson for us! :)

Oh, Thank YOU for visiting this site!

その素敵なレッスンにありがとうマギー先生＾＿＿＾！たくさん新しい表現と言葉を初めて知ったです＾＾

このレッスンがお役に立ってよかったです！うれしいコメントありがとう！！ !happyface!

久しぶりだな,マギー先生!

Thanks for this great lesson. It really helped me to understand って a lot better and now I can use it more correctly!

LOVE your website(^_^)

@Remi Ayumi Lee

Hiiii! 久しぶり!　ってか、Remiって女の子だよねえ。だったら ↓ 久しぶりだな is for boys. 久しぶり！・久しぶりだね！ is better. :)

そう, 私は女の子です.(笑)

Sorry about that, I’ll say ね more often. I just think that male slang in japanese sounds so cool and it shows in the way I speak sometimes.

ありがとう, マギー先生! (^_^)

Great lesson. ^^ I like to use つうかさ a lot, actually. It’s pretty useful I think.

＠curryisyummy Thank you for the comment! ってか、すっごく久しぶりだよね！ :)

Dear Maggie Sensei,

“いつもマギー先生は元気だなって思います。”

What is the purpose of な?

Thank you for your good work!

Hi glenn!! な / なあ is a casual suffix. When we wonder something or express our opinion or feelings, we say ~な / ~ なあ

元気だなあ。= He/She/You/ They are very energetic. or 元気だな ↓ いつもマギー先生は元気だなって思います。 or also いつもマギー先生は元気だなあって思います。

Other examples : Ex. This is delicious! → おいしいな／おいしいなあ Ex. It’s great! = すごいな／すごいなあ

な ending is generally for male speech and women use ね / ねえmore.

おいしいね／おいしいねえ = It’s delicious, isn’t it? すごいね／すごいねえ =It’s great, isn’t it?

When you wonder something, you also use な／なあ (Both men and women use these.) Ex. I wonder if I can do it.= これできるかな？/ これできるかなあ

I LOVE YOU AND YOUR SITE. I LIVE IN JAPAN NOW AND EVERYTHING ON THIS SITE IS JUST AWWWWWSSSSOME.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK FOR GIVING US THIS AWSOME KNOWLEDGE.

Thank you for your nice comment! It made my day! Love you,too! boucingheart!

Language Direct and Indirect Speech

Author JREF
Publish date 29 Mar 2012
Article read time 2 min read
Tags direct speech indirect speech 日本語

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Japanese Grammar: Direct and Indirect Quotes 「と」「って」

Before starting the exercise for direct and indirect quotes 「と」「って」, please clarify any doubts you may have about the grammatical rules by referring to your grammar guidebook or dictionary. The Instantaneous Composition Method requires you to compose sentences with the target sentence pattern(s) over and over in order to use them almost effortlessly. You should already have the necessary knowledge.

Instantaneous Composition Exercise for Direct and Indirect Quotes 「と」「って」

This is not a translation exercise. This is the Instantaneous Composition Exercise. As if a reflexive action, try to create an equivalent Japanese sentence shortly after reading an English script. Try not to think for more than three seconds.

English and Hidden Japanese Scripts

「と」 and 「って」 are interchangeable. However, 「って」 is more casual and can be used only in spoken language. Here, we’re following the formal expression.

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Japanese/Grammar

1 Word order
2 Context sensitivity
3.1.1 Nouns
3.1.2 Pronouns
3.1.3 Na-adjectives
3.2.1 Verbs
3.2.2 I-adjectives
3.2.3 The copula
4 Sentence examples

Word order [ edit | edit source ]

Japanese is a SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) language. English is typically SVO (Subject-Verb-Object). In Japanese, the verb always appears at the end of clauses and sentences. Japanese parts of speech are usually marked with words called "particles" that follow the word they modify. These particles identify the word's or phrase's function in the sentence—for example, topic, subject, direct/indirect object, location of action, etc.

Japanese is flexible in terms of word-order due to use of particles. Sentences, however, generally have the following structure:

Context sensitivity [ edit | edit source ]

Japanese is highly context-sensitive . Words or phrases obvious to both the speaker and listener are often omitted. It could be considered a "minimalist" language. For example, the statement: "I'm going to watch a movie." could be translated as 「映画を見る。」 ( eiga o miru. ); literally, "Movie watch." [I] is implied, as it is the speaker who is making the statement. Depending on the context, however, this phrase could also be translated as "s/he is going to watch a movie", "we will watch a movie", etc.

Japanese has many levels of formality and depends not only on what is said, but also on who is saying it and to whom. The language is socially striated to the point that different forms of speech exist for men and women.

Parts of speech [ edit | edit source ]

Japanese parts of speech, although no more complicated than those of other languages, do not fit well into typical labels such as verb, noun, and adjective. Keep that in mind over the course of your studies.

Nominals [ edit | edit source ]

Nouns [ edit | edit source ].

Nouns in Japanese are fairly immutable. They do not take definite or indefinite articles, gender, and do not change for number.

Although there is no true plural in Japanese, a small number of nouns may take one of several collective suffixes.

Certain nouns may take a prefix in polite speech . Most often, native Japanese words (和語) are preceded by "o-" ("お"), and Sino-Japanese words (漢語) are preceded with "go-" ("ご"). Both are readings of the kanji "御". Though primarily used for adding politeness or distance, some words more commonly appear with the prefix than others, and in some cases, never appear without it (e.g., お茶 [ ocha ], "green tea").

Many nouns may be converted into verbs simply by affixing 「する」 ( suru ) to the end.

Nouns may also function as adjectives when the particle の ( no ) or な ("na") is appended.

Pronouns [ edit | edit source ]

Unlike many other languages, Japanese has no true pronouns; since words that are clear from context are usually elided, there is less need for them. In general, natural-sounding Japanese tends to avoid the use of nouns that refer to people except when explicitly needed. This is often a point of confusion for beginners. Pronominals are not grammatically distinct from ordinary nominals: notably, they may take adjectives, which pronouns cannot.

Na-adjectives [ edit | edit source ]

A Na-adjective is a nominal that often precedes a copula (such as 'na'). Due to the common occurrence of na-adjectives, many Japanese dictionaries write nominals with the 'na' included. Na-adjectives are generally adjectival in meaning, as most cannot exist in context without a previously denoted subject; however, one might simply say "げんき　な (genki na)" to describe a subject that is understood within the current conversation's context (this situation is limited to casual or somewhat informal conversation; using full sentences is almost always necessary when speaking to anyone of higher status). Examples of na-adjectives: "heta na:" unskilled, bad at; "genki na:" healthy, energetic; "orijinaru na:" original

Verbals [ edit | edit source ]

Verbs [ edit | edit source ].

Verbs are where most of the action in Japanese sentences takes place. They are the primary means for controlling levels of politeness in speech,…

Japanese verbs inflect directly for tense, negation, mood, aspect, politeness, and honorific speech.

Unlike English, conjugation of Japanese verbs is extremely regular, with few exceptions. The system takes some getting used to, but once the kana have been learned, a uniform pattern emerges. Verbs are placed into one of three groups: 五段 ( godan , aka Type I), 一段 ( ichidan , aka Type II), and 不規則 ( fukisoku , irregular).

Only two verbs are generally considered irregular in the modern language, 来る ( kuru , to come) and する ( suru , to do). Despite being such, even they are somewhat regular in their irregularity.

I-adjectives [ edit | edit source ]

These inflect for tense, politeness, and honorific speech as well (although not aspect or mood, as they are all stative verbs); an -i adjective will always end in -ai, -ī, -ui, or -oi. (Note that there are also stative -u verbs.)

The copula [ edit | edit source ]

Although the copula is not strictly a verb, most of its forms derive from "de aru", but inflects somewhat irregularly. It retains an "attributive form", na, used to modify the noun it stands before: however, this form is almost exclusively used after na-adjectives.

Other [ edit | edit source ]

Particles : Also called postpositions or joshi , particles show the case of nouns in Japanese: that is, they mark nouns as being the subject, object, indirect object, etc. (English typically uses word order or prepositions for the same effect.) Particles follow the noun they modify.

wa ( は ): topic
ga ( が ): subject
o ( を ): direct object
no ( の ): possession, apposition
ni ( に ): indirect object, direction "to", location of existence, etc.
kara ( から ): direction "from"
made ( まで ): "until", "as far as"
de ( で ): means, location of an action

Some particles are used after sentences instead:

ka ( か ): question marker
yo ( よ ): marker for giving new information or showing emphasis or certainty
ne ( ね ): marker for seeking agreement
tte ( って ): informal quotation marker

Adverbs : Adverbs typically modify the entire sentence, although most Japanese quantifiers (including numbers) are actually adverbs, rather than adjectives as in English.

aikawarazu as always;
sukoshi ( 少し ) a little, few
mō sugu soon, before long;
sō thus, so

Conjunctions : Japanese conjunctions typically either apply to nominals (like English "except") or to predicates (like English "when"), not both (like English "and").

mata wa or (n.);
soshite ( そして ) and then, and also (pr.);
ga but (pr.)

Interjections : Common to every language.

are? "huh?", "wha?"
ē to "um, er"

Sentence examples [ edit | edit source ]

[You're] late.

Book:Japanese
Book:Japanese/Grammar

Japanese Grammar Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you’re wanting to learn how to speak Japanese, then you have to master Japanese grammar rules!

Japanese grammar patterns are quite different to those we have in English, and there is a lot to learn. Things you may not even realize are grammar patterns in English, you have to learn in Japanese. For instance, in English, we can say “I want to _ .” Yes, it’s a grammar pattern, but it’s a simple one, and more a matter of learning vocabulary. Japanese grammar rules are different. That same phrase in Japanese requires learning how to conjugate the verb.

Sounds a bit confusing, right?

Don’t worry, after you read this, it won’t be anymore. I’m going to demystify Japanese grammar, and make it easy for you to understand!

Getting Started with Japanese Grammar

Before we start learning actual Japanese grammar patterns, there are a few things you need to know about the Japanese language. If you haven’t gotten very far in your Japanese studies yet, then here are the basics.

The Basic Japanese Sentence Structure — The Verb Always Goes At the End!

Japanese sentence order is different than in English and takes a little bit of practice to get used to. In English, the basic sentence order is subject – verb – object. Example: I play sports . “I” is the subject, “play” is the verb, and “sports” is the noun.

But in Japanese, the order is subject – object – verb . That same sentence in Japanese looks like: 私は (“I”, subject) スポーツを (“sports”, object) します。(“to do/to play”, verb). There are particles in there, too — which we’ll talk about in a minute — but that exact sentence in English would look like “I sports play.”

The handy thing is, every other part of the Japanese sentence is flexible. If you add a location, a time, a preposition, etc., they can go anywhere in the sentence. As long as you mark them with the correct particle and the verb goes at the end, you’re good to go. So, the key to remember here is: the verb always goes at the end.

You can also omit the subject usually, and it sounds more natural to do so.

Japanese Verb Tenses and Verb Classes

In English, there are three basic verb tenses: past, present, and future. But in Japanese, there’s only present tense and past tense.

Wait, what? How do you talk about the future then?

Simple. You add a time to your sentence!

For instance, the sentence 大学に行きます ( daigaku ni ikimasu ) could be either “I go to university/college” or “I will go to university/college.” But if you wanted to make it clear if this is present or future tense, you would add something like 今大学に行きます ( ima daigaku ni ikimasu , “I go to college now”) or 明日大学に行きます ( ashita daigaku ni ikimasu , “Tomorrow I will go to college”).

A cool thing to note about verbs in Japanese: they don’t change based on who is performing the action! In English, or especially Romance languages like Spanish, the verbs change based on the person performing the act. “I go” becomes “she goes” or yo habla (“I speak” in Spanish) becomes tu hablas (“you speak”). This is one of the easy parts of the Japanese language . 行きます ( ikimasu ) is always the same no matter if I perform the action, you do, or they do!

There are also three different types of verbs in Japanese. る-verbs, う-verbs, and irregular verbs. る and う verbs are verbs that end in either る or う, and their conjugation changes based on which ending they have. Be careful though: some verbs that end in る are actually う verbs! We’ll get to this more in a moment, but let’s talk about irregular verbs first.

There are only two irregular verbs in Japanese. These verbs are する ( suru , “to do”) and 来る ( kuru , “to come”). They’re common verbs though, so you’ll get used to them quickly.

Understanding Japanese Formal and Informal Speech

Speaking of 行きます, that is the standard polite form of Japanese. It’s the form that you can use with anyone, and you’ll always sound polite.

Standard, polite Japanese, or formal Japanese, uses the -masu verb ending. 行きます, 食べます ( tabumasu , “to eat”), 飲みます ( nomimasu , “to drink”), 読みます ( yomimasu , “to read”)… All these verbs are in formal form, using the -masu ending.

Informal speech is simple and doesn’t conjugate in present tense. Informal speech uses the dictionary or infinite form of the verb! So 行きます in informal speech is its dictionary form, 行く ( iku ). The same is true for the others listed above: 食べる ( taberu ), 飲む ( nomu ), 読む ( yomu ).

So when you look up a verb in the dictionary, then it’s in its basic form, and can be used the same way to speak informally. Easy!

Japanese Gender and Counters

Here’s another easy part of Japanese: there are no genders for words! So you don’t have to worry about learning which words are feminine or masculine like in Romance languages such as French or Portuguese.

Some words or phrases are more often used by men or women, though. For instance, a woman might use すごいね ( sugoi ne , a popular, multiuse word meaning “cool” or “great”), but a man might shorten it to sound more masculine and say すげー ( suge- ).

As for counters, there are many specific words or suffixes used to count objects in Japanese . We’re not going to get into that here, because it’s quite a complex topic. But know this is a grammar rule you’ll want to come back to later when you get deeper into your studies.

Japanese Verb Conjugation

Okay, remember how I said there are る-verbs and う-verbs? This is important to learn because it determines how you conjugate these verbs.

For る-verbs, like 食べる, you drop the る and add -ます ( -masu ) when you’re making the verb formal. This is always the same for all る-verbs. 見る ( miru , “to see”) becomes 見ます. 寝る ( neru , “to sleep”) becomes, you guessed it, 寝ます.

う-verbs, on the other hand, conjugate a bit differently. For these verbs, you only drop the final う, and then add -います. If you know your hiragana and katakana chart , you can think of this as changing the end syllable from the u-row to the i-row. This is easier to think about than dropping u and adding -imasu , because in Japanese, we would have to write a different hiragana character altogether. When romanizing it in English, we only change one letter, so it gets confusing when writing.

Here’s an example: 飲む, romanized nomu , ends in “mu”. If we romanized it, we would drop the “u” and add “imasu” to get nomimasu . However, in Japanese script, we would be changing the entire character from “mu” to “mi”: む → み. So it reads 飲みます.

This is the same for all う-verbs, though. 行く ( iku ) ends in “ku” but changes to 行きます ( ikimasu ). く becomes き. 読む ( yomu ) changes from む ( mu ) to み ( mi ) and becomes 読みます.

Note that when you drop -masu , you get the verb root. Yomi is the root form of yomu or yomimasu . Tabe is the root of taberu or tabemasu . This is good to know for changing up the ending to make new forms and meanings.

Forming Questions in Japanese

To form a question in Japanese is super simple: you add か ( ka ) to the end of a formal sentence. So 行きますか ( ikimasu ka ) means “You go?” Or you could say 名前は何ですか ( namae wa nan desu ka ) for “What’s your name?” Desu + ka is a common way to turn a statement into a question.

In informal situations, though, you can just raise the intonation at the end of the sentence.

For writing, you typically don’t use a question mark in Japanese. The “ka” itself is the question mark. But for those informal sentences that you write in Japanese, you can add “?” at the end. So 名前？ (“Your name?”) is normal, but you would use a Japanese period, called the kuten or maru (“circle”), for the full formal sentence, 名前は何ですか。

Japanese Particles

Japanese particles are used to mark what function a word has in a sentence. There are quite a few particles, but the most common ones are は, が, and を.

は, said “wa” instead of “ha” when used as a particle, marks the subject of a sentence. 私はケイトリンです means “I am Caitlin” and は marks 私 (“I”) as the subject. But, I could also say ケイトリンです and leave off the subject because it’s understood.

が is also used to mark the subject of a sentence, emphasize the subject, or used to connect two sentences with “but.” It’s also often used to connect いるand ある to a sentence to say something “exists.” For instance, たくさんコーヒーがある ( takusan ko-hi- ga aru ) means “There is lots of coffee.”

を marks the direct object of the sentence. It usually follows nouns or phrases and often comes right before the verb (especially in simple sentences). 本を読みます ( hon wo yomimasu ) means “I read a book” (the subject, “I,” is omitted). を marks 本 as the object that I'm reading.

Possessive Form in Japanese

Possessive form in Japanese uses the particle の to connect two nouns. For instance, 私の犬 ( watashi no inu ) connects “I” with “dog” to mean “my dog.”

But this can also be used to connect descriptions to nouns. 東京大学の先生 ( Toukyou daigaku no sensei ) connects “Tokyo University” to “teacher”, and means “a Tokyo University teacher.”

The description, modifying, or possessive noun comes first.

“Because” in Japanese

If you want to make longer sentences and explain a situation, you can use the word から ( kara ) to connect them with “because.” For example, you could say お腹が空いた。食べます。( Onaka ga suita. Tabemasu. ) or “I’m hungry. I will eat.” That’s fine, but you could make it sound more natural by adding から: お腹が空いたから、食べます。(“I’m hungry, so I’ll eat.”) You add the reason first: Because you’re hungry, you will eat.

“There is” and “There isn’t” in Japanese

A simple grammar pattern in Japanese is がいる / がある. いる ( iru ) describes the existence of living things, such as people and animals (although not plants). ある ( aru ) is used for non-living things. An example: 犬がいる. ( inu ga iru , “There is a dog.”) or 本がある ( hon ga aru , “There is a book.”) For the formal version, use います and あります, adding the -masu ending.

If there isn’t a dog, you would say 犬がいません ( inu ga imasen ) or 本がありません ( hon ga arimasen ). That’s the negative form of the -masu ending. You add -masen instead to make it negative!

“Let’s”, “Shall we” or “Would you like to…” in Japanese

Remember those verb stems we talked about? Well, you can add -mashou to any verb stem to add “let’s.” 行きましょう means “Let’s go” and 食べましょう means “Let’s eat.”

If you add か, you make it a question. 食べましょうか then means “Shall we eat?”

But a more polite way to ask someone would be to use the negative form, -masen + ka . So, this looks like 食べませんか, “Would you like to eat?” This form is more polite because it’s not presuming or pressuring the other person. It’s more like asking, “You wouldn’t want to eat, would you?”

“Want” in Japanese

Here’s another verb ending in Japanese that modifies the meaning. If you want to say you want to do something, you add -tai to the verb stem.

Let’s look at the words we’ve been using again. 行きたい means “want to go” and 食べたい means “want to eat.” You go use this with any verb!

If you want a noun , though, the grammar is noun + がほしい ( ga hoshii ). So if you want a new car, you would say 新しい車がほしい ( atarashii kuruma ga hoshii ).

“And… And….” in Japanese

Another way to create more complex sentences. Use the particle や to link nouns when giving an incomplete list of examples.

Let’s say you’re trying to tell someone all the sports you play. In English you might say, “I play basketball, baseball, soccer, etc.” But in Japanese, you would use や to connect each of those sports in place of a comma, and you don’t need a word for “etc.” because the や implies it. So it looks like: バスケットボールや野球やサッカーをします。( basukettobouru ya yakyuu ya sakka wo shimasu ).

“Plan to do” in Japanese

If you’re planning to do something in the future, you can add つもり to the informal form of the verb.

If you plan to go to the movies, you could say 映画を行くつもりです。( eiga wo iku tsumori desu ) If you plan to study, you say 勉強するつもりです。( benkyou suru tsumori desu )

“Maybe,” “Probably,” and “Only” in Japanese

You’ll hear these all the time, so they’re good to know! 多分 ( tabun ) means “maybe” and can be used on its own to answer a question, or attach to a sentence. It’s usually used at the beginning of a sentence, like 多分映画を行く ( tabun eiga wo iku ), which means “Maybe I will go to the movies.” Tabun is usually used in a 50/50 situation. It could go either way.

“Probably” is でしょう ( deshou ). This is always placed at the end of a sentence and isn’t used on its own. If you want to say you’ll probably go to the movies, you’d say 映画を行くでしょう。( Eiga wo iku deshou ). You can add it to verbs, nouns, or adjectives at the end of a sentence. Use it if you’re 80% sure.

“Only” in Japanese is だけ ( dake ). Like deshou , it can attach to verbs, adjectives, or nouns. 一つだけの本がある ( hitotsu dake no hon ga aru ) means “There’s only one book.” 映画を行くだけです ( eiga wo iku dake desu ) means “I will only go to the movies.”

Master Japanese Grammar

I know learning grammar can be pretty dry, but having an understanding of some basic grammar in any language gives you a good head start. Then, when you’re listening to conversations, you can pick up the grammar more naturally. Especially when it comes to verbs — if you know how verbs conjugate, then you’ll understand them when you hear them in their conjugated form.

Many of these Japanese grammar patterns are on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N5, which is a measurement of basic Japanese skills. If you’re interested in learning more to prepare for it, learn the N5 Kanji or listen to JapanesePod101 . You’ll learn more grammar and Japanese expressions to help you start speaking now!

Caitlin Sacasas

Content Writer, Fluent in 3 Months

Caitlin is a copywriter, content strategist, and language learner. Besides languages, her passions are fitness, books, and Star Wars. Connect with her: Twitter | LinkedIn

Speaks: English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish

Have a 15-minute conversation in your new language after 90 days

Japanese Grammar – Important Things That You Should Know

Today we’ll be introducing the basics of Japanese grammar so you can start forming sentences in no time!

School supplies showing Japanese grammar

Grammar is to language what bricks are to a house. Without all those grammar rules we abhor and despise, a language wouldn’t hold up! Anyways, once the house has been built, those bricks aren’t so detestable after all!

Japanese grammar is no different, and every Japanese language learner must come face to face with grammar at some point. Ready? Let’s jump in!

1.1 “Grammar” in Japanese
2 Is Japanese Grammar Difficult?
3.1 Japanese Grammar Rules are easy
3.2 Japanese Grammar Overview
4 Japanese Sentence Structure
5.1 Verb Tenses
6.1.1 Ichidan verbs
6.1.2 Godan verbs
6.1.3 Irregular verbs
6.2.1 The verb です (desu)
6.2.2 て (te) form verbs
7.1.1 Common Japanese Particles
7.2.1 Formal Speech
7.2.2 Informal Speech
7.3.1 い (i) Adjectives
7.3.2 な (na) Adjectives
7.3.3 Difference between い (i) and な (na) adjectives
7.4 Singulars and Plurals in Japanese
7.5 Japanese Quantifiers and Counters
7.6 Repetition Words
7.7 Plural Suffixes
8 Learning Japanese grammar

Japanese Grammar

In this guide, we’ll cover the different parts of the Japanese grammar. You’ll learn about the rules you need to observe to create sentences that make sense and are correct.

We’ve also included the different parts of speech such as particles, verbs, and adjectives, the Japanese sentence structure, quantifiers, and suffixes, and formal and informal speech.

“Grammar” in Japanese

Before we start learning Japanese grammar, let’s first teach you the Japanese word “grammar.”

Like any other English word, there are several ways to say “grammar” in Japanese. But the most common term is ぶんぽう (bunpō | 文法). You can say it as “bunpou.”

Is Japanese Grammar Difficult?

You already have a good start once you know the basic grammar of any language. However, much like any other language’s grammar, Japanese grammar can be a complex topic for some and easy for others. The measuring stick is completely subjective.

Native Korean speakers tend to have an easier time learning Japanese grammar since it resembles their mother tongue. Native English speakers are likely to find it more difficult to learn Japanese grammar – it all depends on who’s studying.

That being said, there are quite a few pieces to the puzzle known as Japanese grammar, so objectively, it is more complex than, say, Chinese grammar or any foreign language. Plus, learning a new language grammar is a complex linguistic topic – it takes complex rules to form complex thoughts into words. Still and yet, with enough practice and immersion, you’re sure to get accustomed to the grammar rules, patterns and traits.

Japanese Grammar Rules

If you want to speak in Japanese, you must know the grammar rules.

There might be a tendency to apply your own grammar rules when you learn a new language. Especially if you’re speaking western languages like English. This doesn’t work most of the time, as there are a lot of differences when it comes to grammar rules, sentence order as well as writing systems in Japanese.

But don’t worry; it isn’t as complicated as it sounds. There are enough Japanese grammar rules to throw the book at—it’s the same for any language, really. But step by step, things become easier. You may even think it makes more sense than your language.

Japanese Grammar Rules are easy

Let’s point out some facts about Japanese grammar in defense of its simplicity and ease of use:

Similar to other romance languages such as French and Portuguese, there are no gender words when learning Japanese grammar (masculine or feminine words).
Actions / verbs are always mentioned at the end of a thought or Japanese sentence.
The basic word order in Japanese is free. The subject can appear before or after the object, and the order of the object is flexible.
There are only two irregular verbs in Japanese and just a few other irregularities throughout the entire language.
There is no distinction between the present tense and the future tense, meaning you’ve only got to worry about the past and present tenses.

These are 5 huge grammar points of interest that any other language learner can take to the bank!

Japanese Grammar Overview

Since the topic at hand is so big, we’ve divided some of the essential grammar points into a few categories: Sentence order or structure, verbs, conjugation, speech styles, adjectives, and plurality/quantity.

Today, we’ll be giving an overview of these grammatical ideas. Here’s the best place to start for beginners studying Japanese grammar and a sweet review for intermediate/advanced students.

Remember, the journey of acquiring and learning grammar never stops. It’s just like vocabulary. So, take your time developing these concepts (new or old) to keep your Japanese language foundation strong!

Japanese Sentence Structure

Put simply; there are a few different components to almost any Japanese sentence: The subject, the object, and the verb/action. Basic English sentences are typically structured like so:

Subject (S) + Verb (V) + Object (O)

Think of a sentence like: “David [subject] saw [verb] the bus [object],” or, “The tree [subject] sways [verb] in the wind [object]”.

Japanese sentences’ structures , on the other hand, are like this:

Subject (S) + Object (O) + Verb (V)

In Japanese, the same sentence in English would be like this:

“David [subject] ] the bus [object] saw [verb]”

This is the basic Japanese word order. The verb is usually at the end of a sentence. It may feel awkward at first, but with time and practice, you’ll get the hang of it!

Did you notice that there are particles in the sentence too? If you haven’t learned it yet, you can later read about our lesson about Japanese particles .

Here are more examples sentences of this structure:

1. He かれ (kare | 彼)「Ｓ」, car くるま (kuruma | 車)「Ｏ」, cleaned そうじ (souji | 掃除) 「Ｖ」

2. You guys あなたたち (anatatachi | あなた達)「 S 」, situation じょうきょう (joukyou | 状況)「 O 」, think かんがえる ( kangaeru | 考える)「Ｖ」

Almost every sentence will take this shape. These examples are known as simple sentences. Complex sentences, or sentences with more than one clause, will follow the same pattern and be linked using unique conjugative particles. That’s a deep topic we will be covering in a different article.

Knowing this major difference in sentence/phrase structure alone helps to rearrange your thought patterns as you practice Japanese grammar.

Japanese Verbs

Next up on our grammar overview are Japanese verbs.

Japanese verbs have different tense and conjugation patterns than other languages. Some of them have already been covered in the Japanese grammar rules. Now, we’ll go over the basic Japanese verb tenses and their conjugation.

Verb Tenses

There are three basic verb tenses in English: past, present, and future. You don’t have to worry about tenses when learning Japanese because there are only two: present and past tense.

Aside from that, they don’t change depending on who’s performing the action, unlike in another foreign language. Japanese verbs remain unchanged like the present verb たべる (taberu | 食べる) which means “to eat.”

When you turn it into a past tense, you’ll need conjugation. For example, たべる(taberu | 食べる) is changed to たべた (tabeta | 食べた), which means “ate.”

If you’re wondering how you can talk about the future in Japanese, it’s just simple! You’ll only need to add time to the sentence. For this sentence, “I’ll eat” たべます (tabemasu | 食べます), we’ll add “now” or “tomorrow” to the sentence to make it future tense.

Japanese Conjugation

Japanese verbs have a variety of conjugation patterns . Verbs in the same groups, however, follow the same conjugation rules. Knowing the verb groups will help you conjugate verbs quickly. Let’s get to know them all!

Japanese Verb Conjugations

There are three types of verbs in Japanese: いちだん (ichidan | 一段), ごだん (godan | 五段 ), and irregular verbs. There are only two irregular verbs and very few irregularities in some other verbs, as we mentioned before. So learning the conjugation rules will be a piece of cake.

Ichidan verbs

Ichidan verbs have る (ru) verb ends in dictionary form. For this reason, they are also commonly referred to as る-verbs. Some examples of these verbs are たべる (taberu | 食べる), おきる (okiru | 起きる), かける (kakeru | 掛ける), and あける (akeru | 開ける).

Vowel stem verbs are another name for these types of verbs. I’ll tell you why they’re called that way. Take, for example, the word taberu (たべる). When the stem -ru is removed, the word becomes tabe (たべ), which ends in? Right! Vowel. That’s why it’s known as a vowel stem verb. That makes sense, right?

These verbs are the easiest to conjugate since you only have to remove the る (ru) before adding the new ending to the verb. In other words, it remains on only one hiragana line in the hiragana chart (see chart below). Hence, derives the term いちだん (ichidan | 一段), which translates as “one level.”

Godan verbs

Godan verbs end with any う (u) kana on the hiragana chart when in dictionary form. This う-kana can be proceeded by any consonant . For this reason, they are commonly referred to as う-verbs.

It is also known as consonant-stem verbs. Some examples of these verbs are およぐ (oyogu | 泳ぐ), あむ (amu | 編む), うたう (utau | 歌う), and なく (naku | 泣く). When conjugating these verbs, the final う-kana can become any other kana, or a vowel sound. Found in the Japanese language ((あ (a), い (i)、え (e)、お (o)).

That makes for 5 potential ending forms when conjugating う(u) verbs, which is represented in the name ごだん (godan | 五段), meaning “five levels.”

Irregular verbs

Compared to European languages, there are only two irregular verbs in Japanese, くる (kuru | 来る) and する (suru | 為る), which follow their own conjugation rules. These are common verbs, and learning them is simple as they’re only two!

If you want to learn more about it, you can study Japanese verb conjugations.

Other Japanese Verbs that can be Conjugated

We’ve gone over the three (3) verb groups. Now, we’ll look at the two more common conjugated Japanese verbs.

The verb です (desu)

Anyone with any inkling of Japanese in their life has come across the verb です (desu). It’s the marker of any state of being and is most closely defined as “to be.” です (desu) follows the same conjugative pattern as all other う-verbs and gets used at a clause’s conclusion.

In English, we conjugate the verb “to be” to read “am,” “are,” and “is” depending on the subject of the sentence. In Japanese, it’s just です (desu). It gets conjugated into four forms only: to be, to not be, to have been, to not have been.

This is also one of the verb endings that you can use to say things in a polite form, which we’ll cover in a later section, so read on!

て (te) form verbs

Te-form is another important Japanese verb conjugation. As mentioned earlier, the Japanese language has no future tense. In English, this is known as “present progressive.”

To fully understand how to conjugate て (te)-form, you must first learn how to conjugate present and past tense and the Japanese alphabet. However, here is an example of how to use it: To eat becomes eat or eating

eat たべる (taberu | 食べる ) → eating たべて (tabete | 食べて)

If you noticed, we replaced the vowel-stem verb る (ru) → たべる (taberu ) and replaced it with the word て (te) → たべて (tabete) to say “I will eat” or “I’m eating.” It’s that easy. However, remember that not all te-form verbs actually end with “te.” There is some that end with “de.”

Overall, te-forms will help you tell your current or ongoing action. It has many other unique usages, other than speaking in the present progressive such as connecting successive verbs, asking for permission, etc. We’ll go over these in greater detail in another article.

Other useful aspects of Japanese Grammar

Verbs and conjugations are an important part of Japanese grammar. There’s a lot more to learn about it! Of course, we won’t cover them all in this article. But here are some basic aspects you should also be aware of.

Japanese Particles

Besides the grammar rules, one more important aspect of grammar is what we call Japanese Particles. They are used to mark your sentence’s subject.

This is one of the topics that not many people enjoy. It can be confusing, especially if you have no prior knowledge of Japanese. However, with the right resources and consistent practice, you’ll for sure will learn it easily!

Basically, these particles define the purpose of the word they come after. This means they’re always placed after the word they modify.

For example:

Did you notice how many particles we used in the sentence? There are two particles present: は (wa) and を (o). These are two of the most common particles.

は (wa) is used to mark the topic of a sentence. It gives you an idea of what the speaker wants to talk about. While を (o) is the direct object grammatical marker of a verb. Just like the example above, it shows you the object of the transitive verb けった。 (kicked | 蹴った。)

Common Japanese Particles

Some other particles are:

が (ga) – This particle, just like は (wa), is also a subject marker. However, が (ga) is used to mark the sentence subject, and は (wa) is used to mark the sentence topic. In Japanese, the topic and subject are separated, unlike in English, where they are the same.
の (no) – This particle is a possession marker. It’s like the Japanese version of apostrophe + “s” in English.
に (ni) – This is used as a grammatical marker for the verb’s indirect object. It’s similar “to” or “for” in English translations.
も (mo) – This is used to say “also” or “too.” It indicates if something is valid and has already been stated in a discussion.

More of these can be found on our list of the most common Japanese particles here .

Japanese Formal and Informal Speech

For a long time, Japan was a society based on age and rank. It still is today. Numerous expressions show respect for elders and higher-ranking individuals.

In English, it is common to be casual or to speak in the same tone to everyone. We still politely say things when speaking to our boss or to elders. However, in Japan, it is different.

For example, one word you shouldn’t say to the elders and those of higher rank is “Good morning” おはよう(Ohayou | お早う). You need to say “Good morning, sir/ma’am” おはようございま (Ohayougozaimasu | お早うございます).

Saying things in polite form is important. If not, Japanese people will view you as rude when you sound too friendly. Anime and Manga are also good resources to learn Japanese. They do, however, use the informal form most of the time. So to save you from embarrassment in Japan, let’s go ahead and learn the 2 Japanese speech styles!

Formal Speech

You should go with formal speech if you’re unsure what you should use. This can also be referred to as “polite Japanese.” You can use this form to everyone – to someone older than you, a family member who has a higher social rank, strangers, and so on.

How can we even say things in a polite form? You can do this by using the verb endings –masu (ます) adjective/noun endings –desu (です). These can be conjugated similarly to other verb forms and are great to add to your vocabulary.

Verbs come last in a sentence in Japanese grammar rules. Although です (desu) is used for noun and adjective endings, it’s still like a verb itself, which is why it couldn’t be followed directly by verbs.

When you want to say something that isn’t true, you can use the -masu (ます) form. For example, if I am not Kageyama, you would say:

Simply adding -masen (ません) will convert it to a negative form. You’ll need to change it to -mashita (ました) to make it past tense. This is how you would say something is false or refuse to do something.

Informal Speech

This speech can be used when speaking to someone of equal rank and friends, family, and children. When learning Japanese, it’s best to start with a formal speech because it’ll be easier to learn how to speak informally later. However, if your only goal is to communicate with others or watch anime without subtitles. In that case, it’s okay if you only learn this speech.

Here are some examples of informal verbs:

There are several ways to tell formal from informal Japanese speech. Still, the absence of verb endings -masu (ます) and the polite copula -desu (です) is one of the easiest hints of using an informal language.

You can learn more about this in our Japanese honorifics article.

Japanese Adjectives

Adjectives are placed first in Japanese before the nouns they modify. Japanese adjectives are categorized into two: い (i) adjectives and な (na) adjectives.

Some い (i) adjective examples are:

Some な (na) adjective examples are:

い (i) Adjectives

い (i) adjectives are mainly used to describe emotions, temperature, colors, and any basic concepts. It is the first word to be used as an adjective, so it’s mostly in native Japanese or hiragana , and new words are rare to appear.

But thanks to other Western languages’ influences, we have what is known as “loanwords.” These helped form new い (i) adjectives, such as なうい (naui | ナウい), from the English word “now,” which means modern, trendy, hip, in or up-to-date.

な (na) Adjectives

な (na) adjectives, on the other hand, come from different origins. These so-called “adjectival nouns” can also be referred to as “Foreign adjectives.” However, when it comes to Japanese vocabulary, China has the most influence, from which many な (na) adjectives came from. That’s why, unlikeい (i) adjectives, な (na) can be written in kanji and katakana , but it still always ends in hiragana.

Difference between い (i) and な (na) adjectives

There are 2 major differences between い (i) and な(na) adjectives that every student of Japanese should be aware of:

While い (i) adjectives can precede nouns as they are, な (na) adjectives must be placed after all な (na) adjectives before preceding nouns (hence, the name).
The auxiliary verb です (desu) must follow stand-alone な (na) adjectives. い (i) adjectives do not take this verb.

And yes, adjectives actually change their form in Japanese grammar (unlike English)! That won’t be covered in today’s article, but don’t be alarmed if it pops up at some point in your studies. They conjugate (or inflect) similarly to verbs, making their patterns easier to remember.

Note: very few な (na) adjectives actually end in い (i), so be sure to study them carefully so as not to get mixed up!

Singulars and Plurals in Japanese

A division between singular and plural exists in Japanese grammar, but not in the same way as in English or any other language. There is no way to directly pluralize nouns in Japanese. いぬ (inu | 犬) can mean “dog” or “dogs.” いす (isu | 椅子) can mean “chair” or “chairs.” Instead, the Japanese language uses quantifiers, repetition words, and plural suffixes to specify a quantity.

Japanese Quantifiers and Counters

Using an actual number is a great way to specify quantity and is utilized within the Japanese language. In Japanese, however, every object takes a measure word that must accompany it if it is quantified. These words are called counters . We sort of use counters in English too – think about sheets of paper or cups of water.

The grammatical sentence structure when quantifying nouns in Japanese has two general forms:

number + counter + の (no) + noun OR noun + number + counter

For readers who don’t know, の (no) is a commonly used Japanese particle that serves many functions, this being one of them. Let’s take the counter 本 (hon/bon/pon) as an example, which is used for counting long and round objects.

Here is how to quantify Japanese nouns using a counter.

This rule doesn’t apply only when the counter is the subject or object of the sentence itself. Take, for example, the counter for people 人 (nin). Since the counter is the same as the subject itself (as implied by the meaning of the character), there is no need to mention the noun. The noun is already provided in the context.

Other quantifiers are words like たくさん (takusan | 沢山) and すこし (sukoshi | 少し), which express the ideas of “a lot” and “a few,” respectively. These are obviously more general and subjective ways of addressing quantity, but the idea is the same. You can learn more about Japanese counters on this resource page .

Repetition Words

The pluralization of some Japanese words can be demonstrated using what is known as the Kanji repetition marker, 々(noma). It is written as のま in Hiragana.

This marker is never used on its own – only in tandem with certain nouns. These nouns are always words of Japanese origin and tend to reflect daily life or nature. They must also be general concepts and not specify a specific type of something. Lastly, the repetition marker cannot be used with proper nouns.

Note: There can also be a time-based quality when using the repetition marker, sometimes leading to the all-inclusiveness of a noun’s quality.

Plural Suffixes

Plural suffixes are used at the end of nouns, usually for people or things in nature. When used with non-living things on rare occasions, it personifies said things. The most common plural suffixes are たち (tachi | 達), ほう(kata | 方), and など (nado | 等).

These suffixes are not always specific. They refer either to a group/idea as a whole or to the company of the noun they are used with. Examples are:

These suffixes are used with personal pronouns to form other common words. Again, they can signify the company of a noun or pronoun:

Learning Japanese grammar

Learning a new language is not easy, for sure. There is much more to learn about Japanese grammar than we have covered in this article. But I’m confident that we’ve covered everything important there is to know about it – how to use a grammar point, Japanese grammar rules, sentence construction, verbs, and so on.

With that said, hopefully, you now have a basic understanding of Japanese grammar and how it works. Just keep learning and practicing, and soon enough, you’ll reach your goal of Japanese fluency!

がんばってください (ganbatte kudasai)! ^^

4 replies to "Japanese Grammar – Important Things That You Should Know"

thanks for this.

Great, thanks for your comment! ^^ To find more great content on learning Japanese, visit the 90 Day Japanese Blog . You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for video lessons. You’ll get updated when our latest videos become available.

Very nice post. I absolutely love this website. Keep writing!

Thanks for your comment, Jewel! I’m glad that our article has been useful to you. ^^ To find more great content on learning Japanese, visit the 90 Day Japanese Blog . You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for video lessons. You’ll get updated when our latest videos become available.

Japanese Grammar: Beginner’s #1 Easy Guide

, January 16, 2024

If you are amazed by the allure of Japan or Japanese culture, you probably want to learn the Japanese language by now – been there, done that! Japanese can be quite complex, especially because it consists of three different writing systems with various rules to comply with.

Though it may seem hard at first glance, understanding Japanese grammar is an essential milestone. In this article, we will break down the key points of Japanese grammar rules, from basic sentence structure to Japanese particles.

Japanese Grammar Overview

While Japanese grammar has unique features, complexity is subjective. Embracing the differences can lead to a deeper appreciation of both languages. If you wonder whether learning Japanese is difficult , we have another blog article about it!

Japanese Sentence Structure

Japanese sentence structure , also called word order, differs from English and may take some practice to get used to. In English, the basic sentence order is subject–verb–object, for instance, “I play sports.” However, in Japanese, the order is Subject – Object – Verb e.g., 私はスポーツをします (Watashi wa supōtsu o shimasu) .

Additionally, in Japanese sentences, various elements like location, time, or prepositions can be placed anywhere as long as they are marked with the correct particle, and the verb remains at the end.

Japanese Verb Tenses And Verb Classes

While English primarily has three basic verb tenses: past, present, and future verb tenses, Japanese has two basic verb tenses: present and past tenses. To indicate the future tense in Japanese, you add a time expression to the sentence. For example, 大学に行きます (Daigaku ni ikimasu) could mean “I go to college” or “I will go to college,” depending on context and time indicators.

Interestingly, Japanese verbs do not change based on the performer of the action, unlike European languages. This simplifies verb conjugation in Japanese.

Did you know that there are only two irregular verbs in Japanese? And these verbs are する (suru) to do and 来る (kuru) to come.

Japanese Formal and Informal Speech

Formal Japanese, often used with -masu verb endings, like ikimasu ( 行きます – to go) and tabemasu ( 食べます – eat), is considered polite Japanese and can be used in various situations like talking to your seniors at work or people you don’t really know. Informal speech, on the other hand, uses the dictionary or infinite form of verbs like iku (行く – go) and taberu (食べる – eat) , and is used to talk to friends and family.

Japanese Gender and Counters

Unlike some languages, Japanese nouns do not have gender distinctions. While counters exist to count objects, this topic can be complex and requires deeper study.

Japanese Verb Conjugation

Japanese verbs fall into different categories: Ru (る) verbs, U (う) verbs, and irregular verbs. Conjugation rules differ based on these categories. For る -verbs (e.g., taberu – 食べる , meaning eat), you drop る and add – ます (-masu ) for formality. For う-verbs (e.g., iku – 行く , meaning go), you drop the final う and add – います (-imasu) .

Forming Questions in Japanese

Questions in Japanese are formed by adding か (ka) to a formal sentence. Informally, raising intonation at the end suffices. Japanese sentences don’t usually use a question mark; the particle か serves this function. Informal written sentences, however, can use a Japanese period or kuten ( 句点 ).

Japanese Particles

Particles in Japanese mark a word’s function in a sentence. Common Japanese particles are は (wa), が (ga), and を (wo). は marks the subject, が emphasizes it, and を marks the direct object of a sentence.

Japanese grammar possesive form in Japanese

Possessive Form In Japanese

In Japanese pronouns , the particle の (no, meaning of), connects nouns to indicate possession or modify nouns. For instance, 私の犬 (watashi no inu) means “my dog.”

Commonly Used Phrases In Japanese

These are the commonly used Japanese conjunctions and phrases that will transform your Japanese sentences from good to awesome. Plus, they help you sound more fluent. Let’s see what they are!

The word から (kara) is used to explain situations and connect sentences with “because.” Adding から can make sentences more natural and explanatory.

There Is & There Isn’t

The pattern がいる / がある indicates existence. いる (iru) refers to living things, while ある (aru) is for non-living things. Adding negative forms creates “There isn’t” statements.

Let’s, Shall We Or Would You Like To

– ます (masu) verbs can be turned into “Let’s” statements by adding -mashou. Adding か (ka) makes it a question. The negative form – masen (ません) + ka is more polite and less presumptuous.

To express wanting to do something, add -tai to the verb stem. For Japanese nouns , use noun + がほしい (ga hoshii ).

And… And…

Use や (ya) to link nouns when giving an incomplete list of examples. For instance, バスケットボールや野球やサッカーをします (basukettobouru ya yakyuu ya sakka wo shimasu) means “I play basketball, baseball, soccer, etc.”

Adding つもり (tsumori) to the informal verb form expresses future plans. For example, 映画を行くつもりです (eiga wo iku tsumori desu) means “I plan to go to the movies.”

Maybe, Probably And Only

多分 (tabun) means “maybe,” while でしょう (deshou) indicates probability. だけ (dake) means “only” and attaches to Japanese adjectives , verbs, or nouns.

There are other rules that you need to memorize and practice, such as knowing different Japanese onomatopoeia . Or words that sound the same but have different meanings, which are the Japanese homonyms . In conclusion, remember that mastering Japanese grammar takes time, but with consistent effort, you’ll become more comfortable using its unique structures and patterns.

So, keep practicing and enjoy your journey into the world of Japanese language and culture!

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Southeast asia, east europe.

Draw it in the drawing area
Type the name in the text area
Look for it in the list
Notice that 漢 is made of several components: 氵艹口夫
Draw any of these components (one at a time) in the drawing area, and select it when you see it
Alternatively, look for a component in the list. 氵艹口 each have three strokes; 夫 has four strokes
If you know the meanings of the components, type any of them in the text area: water (氵), grass (艹), mouth (口) or husband (夫)
Keep adding components until you can see your kanji in the list of matches that appears near the top.
Draw a component in the center of the area, as large as you can
Try to draw the component as it appears in the kanji you're looking up
Don't worry about stroke order or number of strokes
Don't draw more than one component at a time

Grammar detail: Japanese terms for parts of speech

More information / references.

(1) http://lang-8.com/513709/journals/319302786637634335903230695525814963962 ⇗

Kanji used in this grammar

を at the end of a sentence, を for direct objects.

Particle を marks the grammatical object of a sentence, which is the thing that is acted upon or affected by the verb. In other words it's what gets "verbed" in a sentence. Particle を has a lot of similarities with objects in English, but it also has some unique characteristics that make it a little different and challenging for learners.

a baseball player hitting a ball with particle を written on the ball

Patterns of Use

First, let's talk structure — what kind of words or grammar structures can particle を attach to?

Particle を can appear after nouns to make them the object of the sentence.

かなえはボールを打った。
Kanae hit the ball .
まちこは梅酒を作った。
Machiko made plum wine .

In these sentences, particle を comes after the nouns that are affected by verbs. In the first one, ボール (ball) is the thing that is Kanae hits. In the second sentence, 梅酒 (plum wine) is the thing that Machiko makes. These are the direct objects of the sentence!

Another place you'll find を is at the very end of a sentence. In this kind of sentence, the verb is purposefully missing, and the listener or reader is expected to complete the sentence in their head using world knowledge or context clues. There are three main reasons why this happens — you might be clarifying what the object of a verb is, you might be trying to make something sound catchy or attention-grabbing, or it could be part of a set-phrase greeting. Let's look at an example of each:

かなえお腹が痛いわ〜食べ過ぎちゃった。 </br> Kanae My stomach hurts… I ate too much.

マミ何を？ </br> Mami Of what?

かなえクラブケーキを！ </br> Kanae Crab cakes!

In this informal dialogue, Mami asks Kanae to clarify what she ate too much of. To do this, she leaves out the verb 食べ過ぎた（た　す　　） (ate too much), because it's already understood from context. Kanae answers her question in a similar fashion. This is completely normal and appropriate for informal conversation.

日本語教育に新しい風を！
A new wind into Japanese language education!

This example uses the を-final structure to create a catchy feeling. 新しい風を吹かせる（あたら　　　かぜ　　ふ　　　　　　） (literally: "to cause a new wind to blow") is a familiar colloquialism for Japanese speakers, which means something like "to breathe new life into something" in English. Because the saying is familiar, readers are able to complete the sentence in their heads. Leaving the verb off makes this sound catchy, so this structure gets used in titles and marketing slogans. The example above could be the title of a book on new approaches to language teaching.

Have a great year!

The example above is a common saying used to greet people during the New Year season. It's used at the end of December, as the New Year approaches. You can also add the verb back in, in which case the full saying is 「良いお年をお迎えください」, or "May you be met with a great new year!"

When particle を is used with a transitive verb , it marks the object of that verb. This use of を is very similar to English, so we doubt you'll have any problems with it. を marks objects that are somehow affected by the action of the subject.

キャメロンがゴキブリをつぶした。
Cameron squished a cockroach.

In this sentence, the object ゴキブリ (cockroach) is what was squished. It goes a total change of state, from living to well, smooshed. Clearly it is being affected by the action in the sentence! Also — ew 🤢

An object does not have to be physically affected by the verb though, it can be more of a psychological affect as well. Again, this isn't really any different from English, so don't sweat it:

ジェニーがキャメロンを責めた。
Jenny blamed Cameron.

In this sentence, Cameron is who was blamed. Perhaps Jenny is the type who refuses to squish any living creature, so when she saw that poor squashed cockroach she needed to find the culprit. While Cameron isn't physically affected, he is psychologically affected — he's now a prime suspect in an insect murder case!

Finally, objects can be the result of some process. This too is like English, so it won't give you any trouble:

ゴキブリ等が政党を作りました。
The cockroaches created a political party.

In this sentence, a 政党（せいとう） (political party) is what was created. The object is still being affected by the action — it comes into existence due to the completion of a process. Now those cockroaches can protest against their human oppressors!

Beyond the Basics

In general, we can say that particle を marks objects of verbs. This doesn't always mean though that the object of a Japanese sentence is always the object of the equivalent English translation, though. Let's take a look at the different ways that particle を gets used.

を with Movement Verbs

Sometimes, you'll see particle を used with movement verbs, such as 歩く (walk), 泳ぐ (swim), 帰る (return). If you've learned about intransitive verbs before, this might come as a surprise to you — don't only transitive verbs take を? Shouldn't we use something different, like particle で or particle から , with a verb of movement? Let's take a look at this puzzling particle use!

ケンイチが厚板の上を歩かされた！
Kenichi was made to walk the plank!
ケンイチが厚板の上で歩かされた！
Kenichi was made to walk around on a plank!

The only thing that differs between these sentences is the particle, を or で, and the difference is pretty big, right? In the first sentence, Kenichi walks the plank, as in on a pirate ship, whereas in the second sentence someone just asked him to walk around on a big ol' plank. Maybe they wanted him to test if it would break? In any case, your choice of particle determines whether he's sleeping with the fishes or not! 🦈

So what causes this nuance difference? Well, particle を treats the noun before it kind of like an object — in this context at least, it suggests that the plank was something that Kenichi walked in its entirety. He walked all of it, and fell off its end. We’re just using this as a neat example, but bear in mind that without the pirate context, it could just be marking the route. Sleeping with the fishes isn’t always a given! Some grammarians describe this use of particle を as marking a “path”, and that is a good way to conceptualize it. Depending on the context, we could also use "along," "across," or "through" to translate this use of particle を, since these suggest a path-like meaning as well. "Walking the plank" isn't something that comes up in real-life too often though, so let's check out, more relatable example:

To stroll (through) the park.
To stroll in the park.

How are these sentences different? The sentence with 公園を suggests that the park is being treated as a route, or that the person strolling is moving with some purpose or direction. The sentence with 公園で on the other hand, simply tells us where the person strolls — in the park. Not on the beach, on the moon, or in the wilderness.

Particle を can also be used with movement verbs that express departure — verbs like 出る (leave) and 下りる (disembark). Unlike the movement verbs in the previous section, which express some kind of extended movement, these verbs occur in an instant. Just like we said with を and で above, we can choose between two particles with verbs of departure as well: を and から.

Mami left the house.
マミが家から出た。
Mami left (from) the house.

In the first example, particle を highlights 家 as the place that Mami leaves, without any suggestion about where she’s going next. It might be helpful to imagine yourself inside the house, watching Mami leave. With から though, we are viewing the situation from the outside. We can see Mami exiting from the building she lives in, and ending up in a new place.

If that’s hard to understand, let’s add on to the sentence. Say that Mami stepped out of the house into her garden. We can add that into the から sentence, because the focus on where she leaves from and enters into. Since particle を just focuses on the place she leaves behind, adding in a phrase about where she went after feels unnatural:

❌ マミが家を庭に出た。
Mami left the house into the garden.
⭕ マミが家から庭に出た。
Mami left from the house into the garden.

However, から is not always about physical movement. It can refer to abstract movement as well:

アニメを卒業しました。
I have moved on from anime.
アニメから卒業しました。

In these sentences, the departure verb is 卒業（そつぎょう）する (to graduate), which means something like "move on from" in these sentences. This is not a physical departure, but something abstract. In the first sentence, which uses アニメを, it suggests that you have moved on from a time in your life when you were really into anime. It just tells us that those days are over. With アニメから in the second sentence though, it suggests that you've moved on from anime and into some other phase.

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Japanese Grammar: Using the Passive Voice in Japanese | Passive Verb Conjugation

Did you know that the Japanese language makes far more use of passive language and passive verbs than English? Read about how to use Japanese passive voice in this article! If you are new to studying Japanese – or maybe you are at a more intermediate level – this blog post will be of use to you. In this article we will provide an overview of the passive voice in Japanese and also give you some examples. Further, we will show you how to conjugate verb groups into passive form. You can also check out our complete Conjugation Kit for Mastering Passive Verbs. Contents:

What is the Japanese Passive Voice?
Conjugating Verb Group 2
Verb Group 3
Verb Group 1

What is the Passive Voice in Japanese?

The passive voice in Japanese is used for various reasons. One reason is that both the Japanese language and Japanese culture are very indirect – as a result, the passive voice is more frequently used in Japan than in some other countries. When speaking Keigo , it is often more polite to use the passive – or even potential – form in many circumstances. In Japanese, the passive voice also is used when the speaker wants to inject the sentence with emotion. For example, Japanese speakers often use the passive voice in situations where they want to convey a sense that they are a “victim”. In other words, they use the passive voice to describe when something bad has happened to them. There are many instances where a tranliteration of active voice in English to active voice in Japanese can come out sounding unnatural. Another use for the passive voice in Japanese is when talking about inanimate objects. For example, sentences such as “that bridge was built in 1990″/あの橋は1990年に造られた. In these sentences, the speaker is describing something about an inanimate object. For this we use passive voice both in English and in Japanese. However in this article, we will focus on using the passive voice in the “victim” context. In other words, when an action is done to you by someone or something.

How to Use the Passive Voice

How do we use these passive form verbs? Let’s look at a few examples before we look at conjugations! 僕の昼ご飯は兄に食べられちゃった！ Boku no hiru-gohan wa ani ni taberarechatta! I had my lunch eaten by my older brother! Now the first thing you may notice is that this sentence translation looks strange in English. However, in Japanese this is perfectly natural. In fact, to say: 兄は僕の昼ご飯を食べた Ani wa boku no hiru-gohan o tabeta My brother ate my lunch. …Sounds somewhat unnatural and emotionless in Japanese. The passive form on the other hand adds more emotion, and often identifies the speaker as the “victim” in the sentence. In other words, the speaker clarifies by using the passive voice that something happened to him or her. Going back to the example above, here is a grammatical breakdown of how the sentence is structured. 僕の昼ご飯は兄に食べられちゃった！ So notice the structure: Subject/speaker + は(wa)／が(ga) + action doer + に(ni) + passive form verb. In other words, think about it this way. An action is done to the speaker or subject by the action doer, indicated by the particle に(ni). Again, this passive language in Japanese is charged with more feeling, and expresses that the speaker is conveying their emotions with this form.

Now let’s move on to conjugating the different verb groups! We will begin with verb groups 2 and 3 before looking at group 1. This is because 2 and 3 are easier to conjugate, while group 1 has more verbs. For more information, check out our Mastering Passive Verb conjugation kit!

Conjugating the Japanese Passive Voice: Group 2

We will start with group 2 because it is the easiest to conjugate! Let’s learn how to turn group 2 verbs into passive form and use them in a sentence. These are verbs like 食たべる (to eat) and 見みる (to see). Let’s look at the conjugations – and then we can look at some example sentences! For group 2 verbs, the conjugation is very easy! Just remove the る off the end and replace it with られる Here are some group 2 verbs in this chart below.

Verb Conjugation: Group 3

Irregular verbs.

In case you didn’t know, Japanese verb group 3 has only 2 verbs: する meaning “to do”, and 来る meaning “to do”. There is no particular rule for conjugating these two, so you simply have to memorize the conjugations. Thankfully, 2 is not that many! Let’s look at how to conjugate these below.

Verb Conjugation: Group 1

This group has the most variations of the Japanese verb groups. These are verbs that end in the う sound that aren’t る (with a few exceptions). We won’t be able to cover all of the verbs, but let’s look at a few to get the feel for conjugating group 1 Japanese verbs.

帰る – “to go home” is one of the exceptions. Clearly this verb ends in る, but it is not a group 2 verb. This is something to bear in mind when conjugating as group 1 “ru” verbs can follow rules different from the group 2 verbs. For more on verb groups, check out this blog , and watch the video below! Or get full access to mastering verb conjugation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqio2xqKMg4

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Indirect Communication in Japanese Culture

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In Japanese culture , communication styles reflect on maintaining harmony. The Japanese are generally non-confrontational and rarely directly give negative responses such as insults, criticisms, or cause embarrassment to anyone. To present something disagreeable, Japanese usually will do so using indirect communication. It may be quite difficult for some who are unaware of this custom to read between the lines. It is important to be able to discern body language.

Japan is categorized as one of the most high-context cultures, where linguistic characteristics are indirect, implicit, subtle, layered, and nuanced, according to Erin Mayer (2016). This establishes the fact that it is culturally accepted that Japanese people usually prefer to communicate indirectly. When learning Japanese, it is important to learn how Japanese people use the language and communicate with each other. When people write something to others, it is preferred to put many introductory words before mentioning the main topic.

Many metaphors are used in Japanese literature, Indirect and implicit ways are noticeable, not only in written communication but also in verbal communication. Subjects are often omitted from sentences and it is expected that others know the same context and understand it. Communication in high context culture is especially explicit when they say something negative and disagree as Japanese people tend to use affirmative words as a way of suggesting a disagreement or a rejection.

To surmise this cultural trait, many Japanese people tend to care more about gestures and facial expressions of others rather than the literal meaning of the language. If someone says “I’m all right” but his/her facial expression is sad, others notice that he/she is actually not all right and needs some help. Probably for other cultures to navigate around this discourse to find the true meaning is to check for clarification numerous times using open-ended questions.

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Indirect Speech in Japanese Grammar

Comprehensive grammar theory approach for successful language learning

Understanding Indirect Speech in Japanese Grammar

The Japanese language offers a fascinating glimpse into the unique complexity of indirect speech. This powerful linguistic tool allows speakers to express thoughts, emotions, and ideas with accuracy and elegance. In this article, we will explore the nuances of indirect speech in Japanese grammar , helping language enthusiasts unlock the full potential of their communication skills.

Indirect Speech vs. Direct Speech

In order to appreciate the importance of indirect speech, it is crucial to understand the distinction between direct and indirect speech. While direct speech simply involves quoting the actual words spoken by someone else, indirect speech allows for more flexibility in expression. With indirect speech, the speaker can convey the essence of another person’s statement without using their exact words. This enables speakers to provide context, clarifications, or even personal interpretations of the original statement.

The Magic of Indirect Speech Constructions

Japanese grammar offers several ways to construct sentences using indirect speech. These constructions differ in their usage and level of formality. Below, we will delve into the most common forms of indirect speech in Japanese grammar.

To and Tte: Quotative Particles

In casual speech, the quotative particles と (to) and って (tte) are often used to indicate indirect speech. Both particles follow the verb or adjective they are quoting. While と is more standard, って is preferable in informal situations.

Example: 彼がそれを知っていると言った (Kare ga sore o shitteiru to itta) – He said that he knows it.

Japanese Verbs for Reporting Speech

Japanese grammar boasts a rich array of verbs that are perfect for reporting speech. These verbs often convey the manner in which a person said something, as well as the type of information conveyed.

Here are some common Japanese reporting verbs:

言う (iu) – to say
話す (hanasu) – to talk, to speak
述べる (noberu) – to state, to express
考える (kangaeru) – to think

These verbs can be combined with the quotative particle と for smoothly conveying indirect speech:

Example: 彼は私に待つと言った (Kare wa watashi ni matsu to itta) – He told me to wait.

Employing Modals for Indirect Speech

Japanese grammar also permits the use of modals to achieve indirect speech. These expressions can be attached to the end of sentences, allowing speakers to maintain politeness while suggesting that the information comes from an external source.

Examples of modals used for indirect speech:

そうだ (sou da) – it appears, seems
ようだ (you da) – it appears, seems
らしい (rashii) – it seems, appears

Mastering indirect speech in Japanese grammar is a critical milestone for any language learner. By harnessing the expressive power of these linguistic tools, speakers can unlock the full range of Japanese communication, enhancing both their fluency and understanding of the language.

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Punctuation in direct speech

We use inverted commas (also called quotation marks, quotes or speech marks) to indicate direct speech. Double quotes (") are preferred in American English, while single quotes (') are more common in British English:

" I'm coming home late tonight, " she said. (American English) ' I'm coming home late tonight, ' she said. (British English)

If we quote within direct speech, we use the other style for the embedded quotation:

"She said, ' I'm coming home late tonight ', " recalled Jim. (American English) 'She said, " I'm coming home late tonight ", ' recalled Jim. (British English)

As can be seen in the examples above, a comma ( , ) is used at the end of the quotation, before the closing speech mark.

A comma is also used before the quotation if we start the sentence with the reporting clause. In this case the terminal full stop (.) comes before the closing speech mark:

She added , "Don't expect me before 11 . "

If the quotation is a question or exclamation, the terminal marks ( ? and ! ) also come before the closing speech marks:

"Hurry up ! " he shouted. She asked, "Am I late ? "

The quotation normally begins with a capital letter, except if it is interrupted by a reporting clause, in which case the first letter of the continuation is not capitalised:

" I 'm coming home late tonight," she said and added, " d on't expect me before 11."

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Reported speech: direct speech

Direct speech is a representation of the actual words someone said. A direct speech report usually has a reporting verb in the past simple. The most common reporting verb is said . The reporting clause may come first or second.

The reporting clause may sometimes come in the middle of the reported clause, especially in literary styles:

“No,” she said , “I’ve never seen it before.”

‘Was it,’ he asked , ‘the first time you had spoken to Mrs Dalton?’

We can use adverbs with the reporting verb to describe the way someone said something. This is more common when the reporting clause comes second:

“I will not accept it!” he said angrily .

‘Can I speak to the doctor?’ she asked rather nervously .

Reported speech: punctuation

Reported speech: reporting and reported clauses

Direct speech: inversion of subject and reporting verb

In narratives, especially novels and short stories, when the reporting clause comes second, we often invert the subject (s) and reporting verb (v):

“Things have always been the same in this village,” [V] said [S] the old man .

‘Hold on! I’m coming!’ [V] cried [S] Maurice .

Direct speech: present simple and continuous reporting verbs

Informal narratives.

In informal conversation, we sometimes use the present simple in the reporting clause. This makes the direct speech more vivid and dramatic:

So then this guy says , “I’ve got something for you. Come over here.” And he picked up a box and he says , “Open that.”

We can make the direct speech even more vivid and dramatic by using the present continuous. This is very informal:

And he’s looking at me and he ’s asking , “Who are you?” and I said, “I’m your nephew” and he ’s mumbling , “I don’t know you. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

In very informal conversation, people sometimes use says as a reporting verb for all persons ( I, you, she, he, we, they ):

She says , ‘What’s going on here?’ and I says , ‘Nothing. There’s nothing happening – everything’s okay.’

Many speakers consider the above examples to be incorrect. This applies especially to the use of says with all persons.

Newspaper headlines

We also use the present simple in newspaper headlines. This makes the reported words more dramatic:

‘I WON’T RESIGN,’ SAYS MINISTER

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The comma comes inside the quotation marks, unless the reporting verb is positioned inside a reported sentence that itself does not require a comma.
Typical reporting verbs are: agree, answer, ask, inquire, explain, say, tell, and wonder.
The words spoken are enclosed in inverted commas (single or double quotation marks).
Single quotation marks are often used to draw attention to a word that is being mentioned for a particular purpose.

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Direct and Indirect Speech: Useful Rules and Examples

Are you having trouble understanding the difference between direct and indirect speech? Direct speech is when you quote someone’s exact words, while indirect speech is when you report what someone said without using their exact words. This can be a tricky concept to grasp, but with a little practice, you’ll be able to use both forms of speech with ease.

Direct and Indirect Speech

When someone speaks, we can report what they said in two ways: direct speech and indirect speech. Direct speech is when we quote the exact words that were spoken, while indirect speech is when we report what was said without using the speaker’s exact words. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “I love pizza,” said John. Indirect speech: John said that he loved pizza.

Using direct speech can make your writing more engaging and can help to convey the speaker’s tone and emotion. However, indirect speech can be useful when you want to summarize what someone said or when you don’t have the exact words that were spoken.

To change direct speech to indirect speech, you need to follow some rules. Firstly, you need to change the tense of the verb in the reported speech to match the tense of the reporting verb. Secondly, you need to change the pronouns and adverbs in the reported speech to match the new speaker. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “I will go to the park,” said Sarah. Indirect speech: Sarah said that she would go to the park.

It’s important to note that when you use indirect speech, you need to use reporting verbs such as “said,” “told,” or “asked” to indicate who is speaking. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “What time is it?” asked Tom. Indirect speech: Tom asked what time it was.

In summary, understanding direct and indirect speech is crucial for effective communication and writing. Direct speech can be used to convey the speaker’s tone and emotion, while indirect speech can be useful when summarizing what someone said. By following the rules for changing direct speech to indirect speech, you can accurately report what was said while maintaining clarity and readability in your writing.

Differences between Direct and Indirect Speech

When it comes to reporting speech, there are two ways to go about it: direct and indirect speech. Direct speech is when you report someone’s exact words, while indirect speech is when you report what someone said without using their exact words. Here are some of the key differences between direct and indirect speech:

Change of Pronouns

In direct speech, the pronouns used are those of the original speaker. However, in indirect speech, the pronouns have to be changed to reflect the perspective of the reporter. For example:

Direct speech: “I am going to the store,” said John.
Indirect speech: John said he was going to the store.

In the above example, the pronoun “I” changes to “he” in indirect speech.

Change of Tenses

Another major difference between direct and indirect speech is the change of tenses. In direct speech, the verb tense used is the same as that used by the original speaker. However, in indirect speech, the verb tense may change depending on the context. For example:

Direct speech: “I am studying for my exams,” said Sarah.
Indirect speech: Sarah said she was studying for her exams.

In the above example, the present continuous tense “am studying” changes to the past continuous tense “was studying” in indirect speech.

Change of Time and Place References

When reporting indirect speech, the time and place references may also change. For example:

Direct speech: “I will meet you at the park tomorrow,” said Tom.
Indirect speech: Tom said he would meet you at the park the next day.

In the above example, “tomorrow” changes to “the next day” in indirect speech.

Overall, it is important to understand the differences between direct and indirect speech to report speech accurately and effectively. By following the rules of direct and indirect speech, you can convey the intended message of the original speaker.

Converting Direct Speech Into Indirect Speech

When you need to report what someone said in your own words, you can use indirect speech. To convert direct speech into indirect speech, you need to follow a few rules.

Step 1: Remove the Quotation Marks

The first step is to remove the quotation marks that enclose the relayed text. This is because indirect speech does not use the exact words of the speaker.

Step 2: Use a Reporting Verb and a Linker

To indicate that you are reporting what someone said, you need to use a reporting verb such as “said,” “asked,” “told,” or “exclaimed.” You also need to use a linker such as “that” or “whether” to connect the reporting verb to the reported speech.

For example:

Direct speech: “I love ice cream,” said Mary.
Indirect speech: Mary said that she loved ice cream.

Step 3: Change the Tense of the Verb

When you use indirect speech, you need to change the tense of the verb in the reported speech to match the tense of the reporting verb.

Indirect speech: John said that he was going to the store.

Step 4: Change the Pronouns

You also need to change the pronouns in the reported speech to match the subject of the reporting verb.

Direct speech: “Are you busy now?” Tina asked me.
Indirect speech: Tina asked whether I was busy then.

By following these rules, you can convert direct speech into indirect speech and report what someone said in your own words.

Converting Indirect Speech Into Direct Speech

Converting indirect speech into direct speech involves changing the reported speech to its original form as spoken by the speaker. Here are the steps to follow when converting indirect speech into direct speech:

Identify the reporting verb: The first step is to identify the reporting verb used in the indirect speech. This will help you determine the tense of the direct speech.
Change the pronouns: The next step is to change the pronouns in the indirect speech to match the person speaking in the direct speech. For example, if the indirect speech is “She said that she was going to the store,” the direct speech would be “I am going to the store,” if you are the person speaking.
Change the tense: Change the tense of the verbs in the indirect speech to match the tense of the direct speech. For example, if the indirect speech is “He said that he would visit tomorrow,” the direct speech would be “He says he will visit tomorrow.”
Remove the reporting verb and conjunction: In direct speech, there is no need for a reporting verb or conjunction. Simply remove them from the indirect speech to get the direct speech.

Here is an example to illustrate the process:

Indirect Speech: John said that he was tired and wanted to go home.

Direct Speech: “I am tired and want to go home,” John said.

By following these steps, you can easily convert indirect speech into direct speech.

Examples of Direct and Indirect Speech

Direct and indirect speech are two ways to report what someone has said. Direct speech reports the exact words spoken by a person, while indirect speech reports the meaning of what was said. Here are some examples of both types of speech:

Direct Speech Examples

Direct speech is used when you want to report the exact words spoken by someone. It is usually enclosed in quotation marks and is often used in dialogue.

“I am going to the store,” said Sarah.
“It’s a beautiful day,” exclaimed John.
“Please turn off the lights,” Mom told me.
“I will meet you at the library,” said Tom.
“We are going to the beach tomorrow,” announced Mary.

Indirect Speech Examples

Indirect speech, also known as reported speech, is used to report what someone said without using their exact words. It is often used in news reports, academic writing, and in situations where you want to paraphrase what someone said.

Here are some examples of indirect speech:

Sarah said that she was going to the store.
John exclaimed that it was a beautiful day.
Mom told me to turn off the lights.
Tom said that he would meet me at the library.
Mary announced that they were going to the beach tomorrow.

In indirect speech, the verb tense may change to reflect the time of the reported speech. For example, “I am going to the store” becomes “Sarah said that she was going to the store.” Additionally, the pronouns and possessive adjectives may also change to reflect the speaker and the person being spoken about.

Overall, both direct and indirect speech are important tools for reporting what someone has said. By using these techniques, you can accurately convey the meaning of what was said while also adding your own interpretation and analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is direct and indirect speech?

Direct and indirect speech refer to the ways in which we communicate what someone has said. Direct speech involves repeating the exact words spoken, using quotation marks to indicate that you are quoting someone. Indirect speech, on the other hand, involves reporting what someone has said without using their exact words.

How do you convert direct speech to indirect speech?

To convert direct speech to indirect speech, you need to change the tense of the verbs, pronouns, and time expressions. You also need to introduce a reporting verb, such as “said,” “told,” or “asked.” For example, “I love ice cream,” said Mary (direct speech) can be converted to “Mary said that she loved ice cream” (indirect speech).

What is the difference between direct speech and indirect speech?

The main difference between direct speech and indirect speech is that direct speech uses the exact words spoken, while indirect speech reports what someone has said without using their exact words. Direct speech is usually enclosed in quotation marks, while indirect speech is not.

What are some examples of direct and indirect speech?

Some examples of direct speech include “I am going to the store,” said John and “I love pizza,” exclaimed Sarah. Some examples of indirect speech include John said that he was going to the store and Sarah exclaimed that she loved pizza .

What are the rules for converting direct speech to indirect speech?

The rules for converting direct speech to indirect speech include changing the tense of the verbs, pronouns, and time expressions. You also need to introduce a reporting verb and use appropriate reporting verbs such as “said,” “told,” or “asked.”

What is a summary of direct and indirect speech?

Direct and indirect speech are two ways of reporting what someone has said. Direct speech involves repeating the exact words spoken, while indirect speech reports what someone has said without using their exact words. To convert direct speech to indirect speech, you need to change the tense of the verbs, pronouns, and time expressions and introduce a reporting verb.

Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ Who Would Take India’s Wealth

The direct language used against the country’s largest minority was a contrast to the image Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents on the world stage.

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Narendra Modi waves from a stage, as several people stand behind him.

By Alex Travelli and Suhasini Raj

Reporting from New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called Muslims “infiltrators” who would take India’s wealth if his opponents gained power — unusually direct and divisive language from a leader who normally lets others do the dirtiest work of polarizing Hindus against Muslims.

Mr. Modi, addressing voters in the state of Rajasthan, referred to a remark once made by Manmohan Singh, his predecessor from the opposition Indian National Congress Party. Mr. Singh, Mr. Modi claimed, had “said that Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. This means they will distribute this wealth to those who have more children, to infiltrators.”

Mr. Modi aimed his emotional appeal at women, addressing “my mothers and sisters” to say that his Congress opponents would take their gold and give it to Muslims.

Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ in Speech During India Elections

Prime minister narendra modi of india was criticized by the opposition for remarks he made during a speech to voters in rajasthan state..

I’m sorry, this is a very disgraceful speech made by the prime minister. But, you know, the fact is that people realize that when he says the Congress Party is going to take all your wealth and give it to the Muslims, that this is just a nakedly communal appeal which normally any civilized election commission would disallow and warn the candidate for speaking like this.

Implications like these — that Muslims have too many babies, that they are coming for Hindus’ wives and daughters, that their nationality as Indian is itself in doubt — are often made by representatives of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.

Mr. Modi’s use of such language himself, as he campaigns for a third term in office, raised alarm that it could inflame right-wing vigilantes who target Muslims , and brought up questions about what had prompted his shift in communication style. Usually, Mr. Modi avoids even using the word “Muslims,” coyly finding ways to refer indirectly to India’s largest minority group, of 200 million people.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress party, called Mr. Modi’s remarks “hate speech.” Asaduddin Owaisi, who represents the only national party for Muslims, lamented how “common Hindus are made to fear Muslims while their wealth is being used to enrich others.”

Tom Vadakkan, a spokesman for the B.J.P., said that Mr. Modi’s speech was being misinterpreted. “This is not about our compatriots, the Muslims,” he said. Mr. Modi was talking only about “infiltrators,” according to Mr. Vadakkan.

The prime minister’s fiery oration, delivered in 100-degree heat in the town of Banswara in arid Rajasthan, marked a contrast to the image he presents in international contexts.

During a visit to the White House in June, Mr. Modi said there was “no question of discrimination” in India. When he played host to the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi three months later, he chose the theme “the world is one family”(in Sanskrit, the primary liturgical language of orthodox Hinduism).

He put his own face on soft-power outreach programs like World Yoga Day, broadcast to Times Square, using it to present a Hindu-centric India as a benign “teacher to the world.”

Campaigns that divide Hindus and Muslims can be useful in animating the hard-right Hindu base of Mr. Modi’s otherwise broad-based electorate, especially in places like Banswara, where Hindus outnumber Muslims by three to one.

With his remarks, Mr. Modi may have been trying to close a divide that has opened among Hindus in Rajasthan over whether to support the B.J.P., with one prominent group holding protests over comments made by a party official.

But the prime minister’s speech was also clearly intended for a wider audience; he shared a clip on his official social media channels.

The B.J.P. remains the favorite to win another parliamentary majority when six weeks of voting concludes on June 1 and ballots are counted three days later. Mr. Kharge, the Congress party president, called Mr. Modi’s speech — perhaps hopefully — a sign of desperation, adding that opposition candidates must be faring well in the early stages of balloting.

Neerja Chowdhury, a columnist and the author of “How Prime Ministers Decide,” echoed Mr. Kharge, saying that, in her view, “voters are expressing their dissatisfaction much more openly this time.” The B.J.P. is capable of a swift course correction, she added, because “they get feedback very quickly.”

Rahul Gandhi, the public face of the Congress party , said that Mr. Modi’s comments had been intended as a diversion from subjects that trouble ordinary voters, like joblessness and inflation.

That the prime minister alluded to religion at all in his speech drew complaints that he may have violated India’s election rules.

Candidates are supposed to be barred from asking for votes in the name of religion or caste. But B.J.P. leaders regularly invoke Hindu deities during campaign rallies. The country’s Election Commission, which enforces the rules, has taken little action against the party, even as it has moved against members of other parties in similar cases.

Uddhav Thackeray, a former ally of Mr. Modi’s who is now running against the B.J.P., declared that he would now ignore an Election Commission order to remove the word “Hindu” from his own party’s campaign song.

The basis for Mr. Modi’s attack was a 22-second excerpt from a statement that Mr. Singh, a Sikh economist who was the prime minister before Mr. Modi, made in 2006. Mr. Singh had been listing many of the traditionally disadvantaged groups in India, including lower-caste Hindus and tribal populations, and “in particular the Muslim community,” and said that all should share equitably in the nation’s wealth.

Since Mr. Modi took office in 2014, Muslims haven’t had a proportional share of India’s steady economic and social development . Just one of the 430 candidates the B.J.P. is fielding in the current election is Muslim.

Mr. Singh’s speech from 2006 seems old now, but it was made just four years after riots in the state of Gujarat under the watch of Mr. Modi. Hindus and Muslims hacked and burned one another and at least 1,000 died, most of them Muslims.

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Muslim candidates that the B.J.P. is fielding in India’s current election. It is one, not zero.

How we handle corrections

Alex Travelli is a correspondent for The Times based in New Delhi, covering business and economic matters in India and the rest of South Asia. He previously worked as an editor and correspondent for The Economist. More about Alex Travelli

Suhasini Raj is a reporter based in New Delhi who has covered India for The Times since 2014. More about Suhasini Raj

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Direct & Indirect speech ＆って ( = tte)
It really really helps to figure out how the japanese language goes !happyface! I have a grammar book that says that when we pass some order in Indirect speech, we should never use any form of imperative but "you ni", like direct)"tabete kudasai/tabenasai" to itta —> indirect) "taberu you ni" to itta :idea: Is it like
Language
In Japanese language quoting and citing, or direct and indirect speech are constructed with the "citing と (to)". The citing と (to) is placed after the full sentence which you want to cite, followed by a verb capable of citing like "to say", "to ask", or "to remember". The citing と (to) can be combined with many verbs where it is best ...
Japanese Grammar: Direct and Indirect Quotes 「と」「って」
English and Hidden Japanese Scripts. 1. (I) heard that Tani-san has a lot of manga. 谷たにさんはマンガをたくさん持もっていると聞ききました。. 2. (I) heard that fish in Japan is delicious. 日に本ほんの魚さかなは美味おいしいと聞ききました。. 3. (I) heard that there is a ...
Japanese/Grammar
Japanese is a SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) language. English is typically SVO (Subject-Verb-Object). In Japanese, the verb always appears at the end of clauses and sentences. Japanese parts of speech are usually marked with words called "particles" that follow the word they modify. These particles identify the word's or phrase's function in the ...
Essential Japanese Grammar: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners
Group 3: Irregular Verbs. There are only a few irregular verbs in Japanese, but they are very common and essential to learn. The two most important irregular verbs are "to do" (する, suru) and "to come" (来る, kuru). These verbs do not follow the regular conjugation patterns of Group 1 or Group 2 verbs and must be memorized.
Japanese Grammar Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide
The Basic Japanese Sentence Structure — The Verb Always Goes At the End! Japanese sentence order is different than in English and takes a little bit of practice to get used to. In English, the basic sentence order is subject - verb - object. Example: I play sports. "I" is the subject, "play" is the verb, and "sports" is the noun.
Japanese Grammar
Japanese Grammar. In this guide, we'll cover the different parts of the Japanese grammar. You'll learn about the rules you need to observe to create sentences that make sense and are correct. We've also included the different parts of speech such as particles, verbs, and adjectives, the Japanese sentence structure, quantifiers, and ...
Japanese Grammar: Beginner's #1 Easy Guide
Here is a quick overview of what all the Japanese grammar entails. ... Japanese Formal and Informal Speech. Formal Japanese, ... Japanese particles are は (wa), が (ga), and を (wo). は marks the subject, が emphasizes it, and を marks the direct object of a sentence. Possessive Form In Japanese. In Japanese pronouns, ...
The Japanese Grammar Index
Learn all about verb…. The plain form of a Japanese verb (aka the dictionary form or the る form) is used to talk about both the present and future. Adding 〜そう to a verb is the equivalent of "looks like (someone or something) is going to do something" in English. 〜かもしれない follows a sentence and expresses "uncertainty."
Japanese terms for parts of speech
The following is a list of Japanese terms for key parts of speech, as well as standard terms for the intent / purpose of a term or grammatical form. ひんし. 品詞. part of speech. めいし. 名詞. noun. こゆうめし. 固有名詞.
How to use Direct & Indirect Objects in Japanese Grammar 87
In this video we'll learn how to recognise and build direct and indirect objects in Japanese.Direct Objects are often followed by the Direct Object Particle ...
Japanese grammar
Japanese is an agglutinative, synthetic, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent.Word order is normally subject-object-verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic-comment.Its phrases are exclusively head-final and compound sentences ...
Direct and indirect quotes
These are common both in English and Japanese, so they should be easy. (C) is the same as (A) except that it lacks the quotation marks. This is still perfectly valid and common in Japanese, because the quotation marks are optional even when direct speech is used. That is, (B) and (C) are apparently different, but have the same meaning!
Direct and indirect speech: General problems and problems of Japanese
The often voiced claim that there is no distinction between direct and indirect speech in Japanese is refuted. Grammatical and deictic problems of reported speech underlying this claim are discussed and some of the conditions giving rise to sentences that are ambiguous as to whether they are direct or indirect quotations are investigated.
Particle を: Direct Object Marker
A new wind into Japanese language education! This example uses the を-final structure to create a catchy feeling. 新しい風を吹かせる（あたらかぜふ） (literally: "to cause a new wind to blow") is a familiar colloquialism for Japanese speakers, which means something like "to breathe new life into something" in English.
grammar
In English (and, I assume, its relatives), there is a style of narration called free indirect speech, some examples of which are given in the linked article. I'm having trouble figuring out whether or not Japanese supports something similar. Clearly, Japanese has direct speech (直接話法): A: それはリンゴだ。. B: 「それは ...
Japanese Grammar: Using the Passive Voice in Japanese
Another use for the passive voice in Japanese is when talking about inanimate objects. For example, sentences such as "that bridge was built in 1990″/あの橋は1990年に造られた. In these sentences, the speaker is describing something about an inanimate object. For this we use passive voice both in English and in Japanese.
Indirect communication in Japanese Culture
The pattern of Japanese indirect communication uses far less words to convey intent in a more subtle manner. Indirect communication uses expression, posture, and tone of voice of the speaker to draw meaning from the actual conversation. Japan is categorized as one of the most high-context cultures, where linguistic characteristics are indirect ...
Indirect Speech in Japanese Grammar
Japanese grammar also permits the use of modals to achieve indirect speech. These expressions can be attached to the end of sentences, allowing speakers to maintain politeness while suggesting that the information comes from an external source. Examples of modals used for indirect speech: そうだ (sou da) - it appears, seems.
Punctuation in direct speech
Punctuation in direct speech. We use inverted commas (also called quotation marks, quotes or speech marks) to indicate direct speech. Double quotes (") are preferred in American English, while single quotes (') are more common in British English: "I'm coming home late tonight," she said. (American English)
Reported speech: direct speech
Reported speech: direct speech - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
How do you write direct speech in English?
Grammar. How do you write direct speech in English? - Easy Learning Grammar. Direct speech gives the actual words that the speaker used. It is common in novels and other writing where the actual words of a speaker are quoted. The reporting verb may come before the words that were actually spoken, or after them, or at a natural pause inside the ...
Direct and Indirect Speech: Useful Rules and Examples
Differences between Direct and Indirect Speech. Change of Pronouns. Change of Tenses. Change of Time and Place References. Converting Direct Speech Into Indirect Speech. Step 1: Remove the Quotation Marks. Step 2: Use a Reporting Verb and a Linker. Step 3: Change the Tense of the Verb. Step 4: Change the Pronouns.
Modi Calls Muslims 'Infiltrators' Who Would Take India's Wealth
The direct language used against the country's largest minority was a contrast to the image Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents on the world stage. By Alex Travelli and Suhasini Raj Reporting ...

Direct & Indirect speech ＆って ( = tte)

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