Quotation と, という, and ように

Last time, you learned how to use 行いく and 来くる as helping verbs like 学校がっこうまで走はしっていきます (I will run and go to school). Now, you can express motion of subjects, motion of objects, and a time flow. Then, if you would like to say “I heard that you would run and go to school,” what should you say? In this lesson, you will tackle how to express quotation.

Explanation for How to Express Quotation in Japanese

First of all, let’s clarify what we mean by “quotation.” This literally means to quote what someone said, e.g. he said “I can speak Japanese,” or he said that he can speak Japanese. We will try to think the usage more broadly here. We can say that the structure of the sentence: “He thinks he can speak Japanese” is the same. In fact, both of them can be expressed by using the same sentence pattern in Japanese. Therefore, we will learn them together. Note: Japanese have the quotation marker 「 」 which is equivalent to the English “ ”, but there is no particular situation where you have to use it.

と: Generic Quotation

This is a basic sentence pattern. You can express quotation by placing と after noun clauses. Please pay attention to omission, which more often happens than other expressions. When you use verbs related to speech such as “言いう: to say” and “話はなす: to talk,” noun clauses can end with any form, e.g. the polite from and the sentence ending particles.

When you use verbs related to thoughts such as “思おもう: to think,” you can only use the plain form or expressions for feelings like a volitional form in quotation (*you will learn such expressions in other lessons). There is another important rule. In conversation, subjects should be yourself when you use the verbs related to thoughts except for novels and manga. Thus, omission can be more complicated as the forth example below shows.

When you use "聞きく to hear" and "見みる to see” with と, it can indicate your understanding.

と: Defining

This is not directly involved with quotation, but you can express definition by using the same sentence pattern. In this contexts, you mainly use the three verbs: “言いう to say,” “読よむ to read,” and “呼よぶ to call.” The combination with wh-questions is very important and useful for beginners.

Advanced Topic: という with Relative Clauses

The sentence pattern: “NounというNoun” works to define the later generic noun by using the former specific noun. The origin of the word: という apparently comes from と言う and can be used to define anything. Be careful; however, the いう doesn’t indicate “to say.” That’s rather close to something like “to be known as,” “to be referred as,” and “to mean.”

という can be used with normal relative clauses, too. You can directly connect という with nouns. Considering the characteristic, it is more natural to use という when modified nouns are related to speech and thoughts. This is also applicable for nominalizers: の and こと. When they are used with verbs related to speech, especially the length of noun clauses is long, using という is more natural.

Because “噂うわさ: rumor” is related to speech.

Because the length of the noun phrase is long.

When modified nouns are related perception such as “音おと: sound,” “味あじ: taste,” and “におい: smell,” you cannot use という.

Otherwise, there is no difference.

ように: Quotation for Requests and Commands

This function is to quote commands and requests, which is not to give commands or make requests (*You will learn them later). When you directly connect the plain form with ように, it will often sound commands. If you want to quote requests or need to be polite, you should utilize くれる or もらえる, which is the potential form of もらう. That way, you can certainly be polite and indicate requests. Note: you cannot use the ta-form in the quotation part in this context.

と is sometimes placed after ように, but the nuance won’t change.

ように: Quotation for Generic Things

ように has the second function, which is to quote generic things like と when you use verbs related to thoughts. The difference is that ように implies your quotation is not exactly the same as the original one or you are not pretty sure about your quotation. In this context, you can use the ta-form in the quotation part. Regarding the conjugation, you need to use な with na-adjectives and の with nouns. Otherwise you can directly connect.

Supplementary Learning: Colloquial Expression

There is a colloquial expression. You can replace って with という. Be careful; this sounds very casual.

Summary

1. You can express quotation by placing と after noun clauses.
2. When verbs are related to speech, noun clauses can end with any form.
3. When verbs are related to thoughts, noun clauses need to end with the plain form or expressions for feelings like the volitional form.
4. と can be used to define something.
5. “NounというNoun” defines the later generic noun by using the former specific noun.
6. ように quotes requests and commands.

You have now learned how to quote and define something. We believe the と is simple enough to memorize its functions. This is the most important idea to take away here. What you have to master next is the sentence pattern: “NounというNoun.” They are frequently used in everyday life. Regarding the rest of them, it is enough if you grasp only the general concepts. Next, you will learn how to express comparison.