sensei wa watashitachi ni, atarashii tango o oboeru dake de naku, reibun mo jibun de tsukutte hoshii to itta.

topic particle

Breakdown of sensei wa watashitachi ni, atarashii tango o oboeru dake de naku, reibun mo jibun de tsukutte hoshii to itta.

• を: direct object particle
• 先せん生せい: teacher
• に: indirect object particle

Questions & Answers about sensei wa watashitachi ni, atarashii tango o oboeru dake de naku, reibun mo jibun de tsukutte hoshii to itta.

What is the overall structure of this sentence?

A useful way to break it up is:

• 先生は — as for the teacher
• 私たちに — to us
• 新しい単語を覚えるだけでなく、例文も自分で作ってほしい — wanted us not only to memorize new words, but also to make example sentences ourselves
• と言った — said

So the sentence is basically:

[The teacher] [to us] [said] [the content of what he/she wanted].

Japanese often puts the most important verb at the end, so you have to wait until 言った to know the whole sentence is reporting speech.

Why is 私たち followed by に here?

に is marking the person the teacher said it to.

With 言う, the pattern is often:

• A は B に 〜と言う
• A says 〜 to B

So 先生は私たちに〜と言った means the teacher said to us ...

There is also an extra nuance here: with 〜てほしい, the person marked by に is often the person whose action is wanted:

• 先生は私たちに作ってほしい
• The teacher wants us to make it

In this sentence, those two roles overlap nicely: the teacher is speaking to us, and we are also the people expected to do the actions.

How does 覚えるだけでなく work?