Saying someone said something...

MizLod · 1 Jul 2006

Hi Everyone!

I'm in the middle of writing a letter to my home stay family in Japan who I stayed with last September... and I need a bit of help!

How do you say "someone said something". For example, My friend said, "Hello".

I'm also curious, in きのう, is のう = 日?

Help would be much appreciated! Thank you~

nice gaijin · 1 Jul 2006

There are at least five different ways of writing きのう in kanji, and they all translate to different words. If you are referring to 昨日 (yesterday), it is an irregular use of the kanji, and could also be pronounced さくじつ.

there are several ways to quote someone, the standard way would be "speakerが「quote」と言いました。" In more casual situations, you could drop と言いました and replace it with a simple って.

undrentide · 1 Jul 2006

MizLod said:
I'm also curious, in きのう, is のう = 日?

No.
きのう is 大和言葉（やまとことば）, which has been existed before kanji was introduced.
The sound きのう was applied to the kanji 昨日 which also means "yesterday".
(Or rather, 昨日 was applied to きのう?)
There's no connection in sound between きのう and 昨日.
昨日 has another pronunciation, as nice gaijin san mentioned.
昨日さくじつ : in this case, 昨=さく and 日=じつ.

It is the same about きょう and 今日.
（今日 can be pronounce こんにち as well, 今=こん日=にち）

Glenn · 1 Jul 2006

Yes, both きのう for 昨日 and きょう for 今日 are examples of 熟字訓 (じゅくじくん), or kanji compounds used for meaning only. It's the flip side of 当て字 (あてじ), which are kanji used for reading only -- e.g., 寿司 for すし, or 滅茶苦茶 for めちゃくちゃ.

undrentide · 1 Jul 2006

Glenn said:
Yes, both きのう for 昨日 and きょう for 今日 are examples of 熟字訓 (じゅくじくん), or kanji compounds used for meaning only. It's the flip side of 当て字 (あてじ), which are kanji used for reading only -- e.g., 寿司 for すし, or 滅茶苦茶 for めちゃくちゃ.

当て字の反対は熟字訓って言うんですね。知りませんでした。
:joyful:
勉強になりました、ありがとう！

yukio_michael · 1 Jul 2006

What about というのは, more commonly found as って ?

って (prt) casual quoting particle (abbrv. for というのは and other similar combinations)

Elizabeth · 2 Jul 2006

there are several ways to quote someone, the standard way would be "speakerが「quote」と言いました。" In more casual situations, you could drop と言いました and replace it with a simple って.

There is no straight Japanese equivalent and は is found just as commonly
depending on desired emphasis, objectivity of the reported statement etc.

Saying someone said something...

MizLod

はなきみ」が大好きだよ

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

undrentide

Japa'n vagyok

Glenn

一切皆苦

undrentide

Japa'n vagyok

yukio_michael

後輩

Elizabeth

先輩

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