Reported Speech

ax

後輩

27 May 2003

311

4

• 17 Dec 2004

• #1

I have often stumbled in making reported speech in Japanese.
being unclear of their usage can make it cumbersome when I want to use it.
I don't know which one to use. For example I wanted to say...

She said, "I am not fat" or she said that she was not fat.
I would follow the english pattern and did something like...
彼女の言うことは「fill the blanks」 here...
they been telling me that this is wrong....but it's really hard to use the right forms. Can anyone bridge my thoughts and make more sense of the Japanese reported speech?

and how do you as "What did he say just now?"

豚様

 

Stutz

先輩

10 Oct 2004

73

1

• 17 Dec 2004

• #2

Take it with a grain of salt and those that speak very well, please correct my mistakes, but isn't "She said, "I am not fat." would be something like :

彼女は"私は太っていない。"と言います。

I'm not sure exactly on my は's and が's in this instance, but I know you need to state the person who is your topic and subject, and then end with と言う since that is what is being done by the topic/subject. At least every example I've seen has been this way.

 

ax

後輩

27 May 2003

311

4

• 17 Dec 2004

• Thread starter
• #3

I hate making reported speech really...just end up stuttering in broken Japanese. But you are right, that's what the machine translator in lycos been telling me. But in spoken I also heard they say something something...then
と言わせて。。。

豚様

 

Stutz

先輩

10 Oct 2004

73

1

• 17 Dec 2004

• #4

Oh....that looks like a something to do with a seru verb ending which I know jack about. Hopefully someone can come along to answer your question shortly since I'm curious too. Especially that's what we are supposed to cover in class next semester in the first chapter.

 

GaijinPunch

遠いから行きません

25 Nov 2004

1,275

34

• 17 Dec 2004

• #5

I think you'll find our Japanese counterparts use passive tense much more often then we English speakers do.

彼女に太ったと言われて。。。

Play w/ that a bit.

 

O

okaeri_man

Tadaima!

6 Sep 2003

452

9

• 17 Dec 2004

• #6

the main thing to remember is simply:

(person) wa (blah blah blah) to itta.

in english: (person) said (blah blah blah).


note: itta is often pronounced as yutta. at least from my experiences.

 

ax

後輩

27 May 2003

311

4

• 17 Dec 2004

• Thread starter
• #7

I did say 何と言ってた「なんというてた」、when my coworker hung up a call from vendor, wanting to know what the vendor had to say.

ax

 

Elizabeth

先輩

22 Apr 2003

9,839

135

• 18 Dec 2004

• #8

Stutz said:

Take it with a grain of salt and those that speak very well, please correct my mistakes, but isn't "She said, "I am not fat." would be something like :

彼女は"私は太っていない。"と言います。

I'm not sure exactly on my は's and が's in this instance, but I know you need to state the person who is your topic and subject, and then end with と言う since that is what is being done by the topic/subject. At least every example I've seen has been this way.

Click to expand...

A couple corrections. More common I think for fat person is 太った, rather than 太っている, but regardless of the tense attributed to the subject, 言いました (言っていました) in the past (not 言う） is necessary end of sentence to distinguish 'said' from 'say' or 'says.'

But if forcing a past-tense negative for 'not fat' is awkward, not to fear....the noun デブ can be used as a substitute.

デブ (n,adj-na) chubby; fat;

Resulting (hypothetically OK at least ?) in :
彼は「私がデブではない」と言いました（といっていました。