Conjugating iu

Hi, sorry, I'm an *****! I'm quite new to Japanese and I was trying to work out how to say

'I think she said 'ebi chili o daisuki.'

haha. I know.

Am I right to try and use いう but to conjugate it to a past presumptive form by taking the stem 'i' and adding 'tta', making itte desho?

This is where I will surely fail. かのこはえびちりおだいすきいてでしょ。

Am I miles away? I'm sure that's what a waitress said to me, but maybe I heard it wrong! Thanks for your help anyway!

AAH! I'm so wrong aren't I! have i said 'she would say?!?!?!?!'

Attempt 2: かのじょはえびちりおだいすきっいいましたかもしれません (*hopefully kanojo wa ebi chili o daisuki iimashita kamo shiremasen)

haha. worth a try. maybe.

Hey there.

Firstly, the particle o is never written as お but always as を (wo). 'Chili' should also be written in katakana because it's a loanword, and you're probably better off using the term 'no chili sauce' (のチリソース) so your meaning is clear. The plain past tense of iu is 言った (itta).

The literal way to say what you want is:

「えびのチリソースを大好き」と (この子は) 言ったと 思います。
"ebi no chiri soosu o daisuki" to (kono ko wa*) itta to omoimasu.
"That kid said he/she likes eel chili, I think."

A more natural way to say it is:

「えびのチリソースを大好き」って (この子は) 言ったでしょう。
"ebi no chiri soosu o daisuki" tte (kono ko wa*) itta deshou."

* "Kono ko wa" can be omitted if it's already been made clear whom you're talking about.

The second sentence means something more like, "That kid said he/she likes chili, didn't he/she?" The "Kono ko wa" can also be moved to the beginning of the sentence, but I prefer to put it right after the quote to make the meaning more clear. It's a preference thing though. If you like, you can change it to,

この子は 「えびのチリソースを大好き」と 言ったと 思います。
kono ko wa "ebi no chiri soosu o daisuki" to itta to omoimasu.

and the meaning is still the same.

エビチリ is more commonly used than エビのチリソース炒め nowadays.

を is barely acceptable in indirect quotation 彼女はエビチリを好きだと言ったと思います, but が is used to indicate the object of 大好き, as in 彼女は「エビチリが大好き」と言ったと思います.

Really? I did read somewhere that using を is acceptable with 大好き and such, even though が and は are more common. I'll take your word for it. And thanks for the info on the 'エビチリ' term. I always like to know what's more standard to say.