Questions & Answers about kare wa mujitsu da to itta.
How is this sentence structured?
The basic structure is:
[彼は無実だ] と 言った。
- 彼は無実だ = the content being said
- と = quotation marker
- 言った = said
So the sentence is literally something like:
[He is innocent] + said
Also, in normal Japanese writing, this would usually be written without spaces:
彼は無実だと言った。
What does と do here?
と marks the content of speech or thought.
With 言う (to say), it often works like English that or like quotation marks.
So in:
彼は無実だと言った
the と tells you that 彼は無実だ is what was said.
A very common pattern is:
- plain sentence + と言う = say that ...
Examples:
- 行くと言った = said that someone would go / said I’ll go
- 大丈夫だと言った = said that it was okay
Why is there a だ after 無実?
