kanozyo ha gyuuniku yori butaniku no hou ga yawarakakute tabeyasui to itte imasita.

彼女は marks her / as for her as the topic of the sentence.

This does not necessarily mean she is the grammatical subject of every part in a strict English-like way. It just sets up the sentence as being about her:

• 彼女は = as for her
• then the rest tells what she said

So the overall structure is roughly:

• As for her, [she] was saying that ...

Japanese often introduces a topic first and then gives information about it.

This is a very common comparison pattern:

• A より B のほうが ...
• B is more ... than A

So here:

• 牛肉より = than beef
• 豚肉のほうが = pork is the one that is more...

Together:

• 牛肉より豚肉のほうが = pork, rather than beef, is more ...

This pattern is often easier to understand if you memorize it as a chunk:

• AよりBのほうが = B more than A

のほう adds the idea of the one on this side / the one preferred / the one more so in this comparison.

In comparisons, B のほうが is extremely common. It highlights B as the item being judged in contrast to A.

Compare:

• 牛肉より豚肉がやわらかい
  This can be understood, but it sounds less like the standard textbook comparison pattern.

• 牛肉より豚肉のほうがやわらかい
  This is the most natural and clear comparative phrasing.

So のほうが is not random; it helps explicitly mark pork as the item that wins in the comparison.

やわらかい is an i-adjective meaning soft or tender.

To connect it to another phrase, it changes to the -て form:

• やわらかい → やわらかくて

Here the -て form means something like:

• soft/tender and...
• being soft/tender, ...
• soft/tender, so ... depending on context

In this sentence, it links やわらかい with 食べやすい:

• やわらかくて食べやすい = tender and easy to eat

Because i-adjectives connect this way in Japanese.

Basic rule:

• remove the final い
• add くて

Examples:

• 高い → 高くて
• おいしい → おいしくて
• やわらかい → やわらかくて

So やわらかくて食べやすい is just the normal way to say:

• soft and easy to eat

Literally, it is:

• 食べる = to eat
• やすい = easy to do

So:

• 食べやすい = easy to eat

This pattern is very useful:

• verb stem + やすい = easy to do
• verb stem + にくい = hard to do

Examples:

• 読みやすい = easy to read
• わかりやすい = easy to understand
• 使いやすい = easy to use

Here, 食べやすい probably means something like easy to chew/eat comfortably, which fits well with tender meat.

Yes, semantically it describes pork, but grammatically it is part of the predicate of the comparison.

The chunk

• 豚肉のほうがやわらかくて食べやすい

means:

• pork is more tender and easier to eat

So 食べやすい is not acting like an English adjective placed before a noun, but it is still saying something about 豚肉.

If Japanese wanted to put it directly before the noun, it could do something like:

• 食べやすい豚肉 = pork that is easy to eat

But that is not what is happening here.

Usually, yes, that is the natural interpretation.

Because the comparison frame starts with:

• 牛肉より豚肉のほうが...

the following predicate やわらかくて食べやすい is understood as the thing being compared.

So the sense is:

• Compared with beef, pork is more tender and easier to eat.

In natural English, people might sometimes translate loosely as:

• She said pork is more tender and easier to eat than beef.

That is the most likely intended meaning.

と marks the content of what was said or thought.

So:

• X と言う = to say X

Here, the quoted content is everything before と:

• 牛肉より豚肉のほうがやわらかくて食べやすい
• then と言っていました = was saying / said

You can think of と as the quotation marker.

言っていました is the ている form of 言う in the past:

• 言う
• 言っている
• 言っていました

In this kind of sentence, 言っていました often means:

• was saying
• said
• had said
• I heard her say

It can sound a little softer, more report-like, or like the speaker is recalling what someone said previously.

By contrast:

• 言いました = a more simple, direct said

So:

• と言いました = said that
• と言っていました = was saying that / had said that

In many contexts, the English translation may still just be said.

No. This is an important point.

Japanese 〜ている does not always match English progressive exactly.

With 言う, 言っている / 言っていました can mean things like:

• someone is saying something
• someone said something and that statement is what they maintain
• the speaker is reporting what someone said

So in this sentence, you should not force a very literal image like she was physically in the middle of uttering the sentence. Very often it simply functions as a natural report of what she said.

Yes, that is also possible.

For example:

• 豚肉のほうが牛肉よりやわらかくて食べやすい

This also means:

• Pork is more tender and easier to eat than beef.

Japanese word order is flexible as long as the particles make the relationships clear.

That said, the original order:

• 牛肉より豚肉のほうが

is extremely common and easy to recognize as the standard comparison pattern.

Because Japanese often omits information that is already clear from context.

Once the sentence says:

• 牛肉より豚肉のほうが

we already know that 豚肉 is what the predicate is about.

So Japanese does not need to repeat anything before:

• やわらかくて食べやすい

This is normal and natural. Japanese frequently leaves out subjects and other elements when they are understood.

Literally, ほう can mean something like side, direction, or one of the two options.

In comparisons, A のほう often means:

• A's side
• A as the one in question
• A rather than the other option

So in:

• 豚肉のほうが

it is like saying:

• pork, rather than the other one, is more...

You do not need to translate のほう literally every time. In comparison sentences, it is best to understand it as part of the pattern.

Both are possible, but in this kind of everyday sentence, ほう is very often written in kana:

• 豚肉のほうが

You may also see:

• 豚肉の方が

Kanji 方 is not wrong, but kana is extremely common and often feels lighter and more natural in many contexts.

That is a possible nuance of 〜くて, because the て-form can sometimes show a loose cause-and-effect relationship.

So:

• やわらかくて食べやすい

can feel like:

• it is tender, and therefore easy to eat

However, in ordinary translation, it is usually best rendered simply as:

• tender and easy to eat

The sentence does not strongly force a causal reading, but that connection is naturally present.

The ending verb is based on 言う.

Breakdown:

• 言う = dictionary form
• 言っている = non-past ている form
• 言っていました = past polite form

So the full quoted structure is:

• 〜と言っていました
• was saying that... / said that...

Those spaces are just for learners. Normal Japanese writing does not use spaces like this.

A natural written version would be:

• 彼女は牛肉より豚肉のほうがやわらかくて食べやすいと言っていました。

Japanese normally relies on:

• kanji
• hiragana
• particles
• familiar grammar patterns

to show where words and phrases begin and end, instead of spaces like English does.