Quoting, thinking and reporting: と

Narration is full of people saying and thinking things. Japanese handles this with the particle と, which closes a quotation and tells you what the next verb is about.

Put the exact words in 「」 brackets and add と plus the verb of saying or thinking:

The brackets are often replaced by plain commas or nothing at all in normal text. To find a quote, look for と followed by 言う, 思う, 聞く, 書く, 考える, 答える.

Unlike English, Japanese does not shift tenses or pronouns when reporting. The quoted words stay in the form they were said in (plain form, usually):

The quote is literally "tomorrow come". Yet the sentence is reported speech. No "would", no backshifting.

Plain form + と思う is how you give your own opinion or guess. It's one of the most useful patterns in the language.

Use 〜と思っている for a thought you hold now and 〜と思った for what you thought at some point:

For the thoughts of others, use 〜と思っている:

In casual speech, と shortens to って, and 〜と言った becomes 〜って言った:

A sentence ending in って can also mean "I heard that..." or "they say...":

という ("saying that") links a name or a statement to a noun:

It's a regular part of describing clauses. When a noun like 話, 噂, 考え, 夢, 気持ち is explained by a full sentence, the sentence connects with という.

To report a question you've heard or are asking yourself, add か. A yes/no question uses かどうか ("whether or not").

The question is in plain form followed by か, without the question mark.

Plain form + そうだ reports what you have heard from someone or something else:

Be careful: plain form + そうだ is hearsay, but stem + そうだ means "looks like" (おいしそうだ looks delicious). We'll compare these in the lesson on guessing and appearance.

In novels you'll see lines like this:

The quote, then と, then the speaker, then the verb of saying. Often the speaker and verb come first. Often the verb of saying is dropped entirely, and you rely on context and the paragraph break to know who is speaking. This is an area where reading a lot teaches you more than any rule.

Quotes pile up in conversation and narrative. Watch the nested と.

• と closes a quote and is followed by 言う, 思う, 聞く and so on.
• Quotes keep their own grammar: no tense shift, no pronoun change.
• 〜と思う: I think. 〜って: casual と. 〜という: called / that.
• 〜かどうか reports a yes/no question; 〜か reports a question word.
• Plain form + そうだ = I heard that.