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

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.

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.

だけでなく means not only ... but also ...

The pattern is:

• A だけでなく、B も
• not only A, but also B

Here:

• 新しい単語を覚える = memorize new words
• 新しい単語を覚えるだけでなく = not only memorize new words

So the first half sets up one expected action, and the second half adds another one.

With verbs, it is normal to use the plain form before だけでなく, so 覚えるだけでなく is completely natural.

Because も pairs naturally with だけでなく.

The pattern is:

• Aだけでなく、Bも
• not only A, but B too / but also B

So:

• 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

This gives the full not only A, but also B structure.

Without も, the sentence would lose some of that balancing feel.

Yes, ほしい applies to the whole idea.

Japanese often puts the shared ending only once, at the end of the whole coordinated phrase. So even though ほしい appears right after 作って, the meaning is:

• the teacher wanted us not only to memorize new words
• but also to make example sentences ourselves

In other words, the teacher's wish covers both actions.

Japanese often avoids repeating the same ending if it is already clear from the structure.

Vてほしい means want someone to do V.

So:

• 作ってほしい = want someone to make it
• here: want us to make example sentences

This is different from:

• 作りたい = want to make it oneself
• 作ってください = please make it

So 作ってほしい expresses the speaker's desire or request about another person's action.

In this sentence, the teacher is not talking about what the teacher wants to do; the teacher is saying what the teacher wants us to do.

自分で means by oneself, on one’s own, or oneself.

So 例文も自分で作ってほしい means the teacher wants the example sentences to be made by the learners themselves.

Here, 自分 refers to the people doing 作る, which is understood to be 私たち.

So the nuance is something like:

• don’t just memorize the words
• also make example sentences yourself / yourselves

It suggests doing it independently, not just copying a model or waiting for someone else to do it.

と marks the content of what was said, and 言った means said.

So:

• 〜と言った = said that ...

The part before と is the actual content being reported.

Japanese uses this structure very often:

• plain form + と言う / 言った

So in this sentence, everything before と is what the teacher said/wanted.

Also, Japanese does not always separate direct and indirect quotation as sharply as English does. In English, this sentence is usually translated naturally as an indirect report: The teacher said that ...

Because they are doing different jobs in the sentence.

• 言った is the main verb of the whole sentence, so it shows that the act of speaking happened in the past.
• 覚える is inside the quoted content, and it is just the base form of the verb used in the expression 覚えるだけでなく.

So 覚える here does not mean that the memorizing is present tense in the English sense. It is simply the normal plain form used before だけでなく.

Likewise, 作って is in the て-form because it connects to ほしい.

The understood doer is 私たち.

Japanese very often leaves subjects unstated when they are obvious from context. Here, from 私たちに and from the meaning of 〜てほしい, we understand that we are the ones expected to:

• 覚える — memorize
• 作る — make

So even though Japanese does not explicitly repeat 私たちが, the meaning is clear.

This is one of the biggest differences from English: Japanese often relies on context instead of repeating subjects.

先生は is the topic, marked by は.

In English, we often loosely translate it as the subject, because the teacher is the person the sentence is mainly about. But grammatically, は marks what the sentence is talking about.

That matters here because the teacher is not the one doing 覚える or 作る. The teacher is the one who said the message.

So:

• 先生は — the teacher is the topic / speaker
• 私たち — we are the understood doers of memorizing and making example sentences

This is a very common Japanese pattern: one person is the topic of the sentence, while another person is the understood subject of an embedded action.