Japanese

<p>
	<strong>Direct quotations</strong> are quotations that are word for word identical to what the original speaker said.
	In English we use quotation marks to signal that a quotation is direct.
</p>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>He said: "The sky is blue."</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	<strong>Indirect quotations</strong> convey the meaning of what someone said, without exactly saying the same.
	We can use the word <strong>that</strong> to signify that a quotation is indirect.
</p>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>He said that the sky was blue.</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	For direct quotations, Japanese also uses something like quotation marks.
	They look a bit different though, and are called <ruby>鉤kagi括kak弧ko</ruby>.
</p>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <tbody>
        <tr data-item="217087"></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	In indirect quotations, we don't use <ruby>鉤kagi括kak弧ko</ruby>.
	Indirect quotations are always paraphrased using the plain form,
	even if the original speaker actually used the polite form.
	So when using indirect quotation the sentence above would change as follows.
</p>

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    <tbody>
        <tr data-item="217088"></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	Note that the particle <strong>と</strong> is used after both direct and indirect quotations.
	And secondly, note that though in normal sentences the topic particle <strong>は</strong> appears only once,
	when quoting it's okay to use the particle both in the quote and in the main sentence.
</p>

<p>
	Below are two sentences that describe the same event,
	the first one using a <strong>direct quotation</strong> and the second one using an <strong>indirect quotation</strong>.
</p>

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    <tbody>
        <tr data-item="217285"></tr>
		<tr data-item="217287"></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<p>
	Note firstly that we replaced the word <strong>私</strong> with <strong>自分</strong> in the indirect quotation,
	because it would otherwise be unclear if the <strong>私</strong> referred to the speaker or the person spoken about.
</p>

<p>
	Secondly, note that though we need to use the plain form of the verb in the indirect quotation,
	we did change <strong>母</strong> to <strong>お母さん</strong> in the second sentence.
	So in indirect quotations we apply appropriate politeness levels when talking about someone,
	even though we put the main verb of the quotation in the plain form.
</p>

<p>
	We do not change the politeness of direct quotations though,
	as direct quotations need to be word for word identical to what the original speaker said.
</p>

Direct and indirect quotations

hiragana character

kanji

adnominal

adverb

auxiliary

conjunction

compound

i-adjective

interjection

noun

na-adjective

numeral

particle

case particle

conjunctive particle

discourse particle

prefix

pronoun

suffix

verb

sentence

hiragana writing

kanji writing

kanji component

reading vocabulary

katakana writing

katakana character

godan - group 1

itidan - group 2

group 3

transitive

intransitive

proper noun

discourse

phrase

expression

Word	彼かの女じょ　は　「私わたし　の　母はは　は　門もん　を　開あけました」　と　言いいました。 kanozyo ha 「watasi no haha ha mon wo akemasita」 to iimasita.
Meaning	She said: "My mother opened the gate."
Part of speech	sentence
Pronunciation

I	私わたし watasi
topic particle	は ha
possessive case particle	の no
direct object particle	を wo
she	彼かの女じょ kanozyo
to say	言いう iu
mother ^plain	母はは haha
gate	門もん mon
to open^transitive	開あける akeru

Japanese

kanozyo ha 「watasi no haha ha mon wo akemasita」 to iimasita.

Breakdown of kanozyo ha 「watasi no haha ha mon wo akemasita」 to iimasita.

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