Start Learning Japanese in the next 30 Seconds with
a Free Lifetime Account

Or sign up using Facebook

へいい 皆さん! need alittle help sorting out one

Moderators: Moderator Team, Admin Team

arturdjclubber
New in Town
Posts: 3
Joined: April 28th, 2008 10:29 pm

へいい 皆さん! need alittle help sorting out one

Postby arturdjclubber » November 26th, 2008 2:23 pm

ok, so when i want to say something that someone else said, like quoting, for example,

"you said this before "katakana is harder than kanji and hiragana" ~

1- "昔は カタカナ は 漢字 と ひらがな の より 難しいです” って 言った(言いました)。

2- ”昔は カタカナ は 漢字 と ひらがな の より 難しい です” と 言った(言いました).

whats the proper way of saying it grammatically.

Arthur. :) arigatou.

Kazu1985
New in Town
Posts: 8
Joined: November 6th, 2008 8:03 pm

Postby Kazu1985 » November 26th, 2008 6:02 pm

「片仮名 ( の方 ) は漢字と平仮名より難しい」と前に言いました ( よね )。
You said that 'Katakana are harder than Kanji and Hiragana', ( haven't you )?

I wouldn't use 'mukashi' in this context, except you are like 80 years old and talk to a person who said this line like 60 years ago. XD It usually describes a time that is very long ago.

'-to' and '-iimashita' can be changed of course, depending on whom you are speaking to.

Get 55% OFF + 2 FREE Months
arturdjclubber
New in Town
Posts: 3
Joined: April 28th, 2008 10:29 pm

thanks for the reply. :)

Postby arturdjclubber » November 27th, 2008 2:30 pm

Thanks for the reply.

I am under the impression that と and って is placed after the quote right, and they have the same usage?

「片仮名 ( の方 ) は漢字と平仮名より難しい」と前に言いました ( よね )
Addressed to the listener , and if i want to quote third persons words, can i use it like the sample above. just insert the name of the teller. ?

for example:
「片仮名 ( の方 ) は漢字と平仮名より難しい」と スミス さんを 前に言いました 。

Kazu1985
New in Town
Posts: 8
Joined: November 6th, 2008 8:03 pm

Postby Kazu1985 » November 27th, 2008 4:10 pm

って and と both mark a quote. って is just a more colloquial form than と is.

You other example has to have the subject marker が.
「片仮名 ( の方 ) は漢字と平仮名より難しい」とスミスさんが前に言いました。

Also possible:
スミスさんが「片仮名 ( の方 ) は漢字と平仮名より難しい」と前に言いました。
スミスさんが前に「片仮名 ( の方 ) は漢字と平仮名より難しい」と言いました。
....

Its very important to always have the right particles. Although there are some basic sentence patterns, you can shuffle some pieces around a bit, depending on what you want to emphasize (although that is also often done by particles).

arturdjclubber
New in Town
Posts: 3
Joined: April 28th, 2008 10:29 pm

thank you.

Postby arturdjclubber » November 28th, 2008 1:18 pm

by now i understood this point. :)
thank you for your help. :P

Return to “Practice Japanese - 日本語を練習しましょう”