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<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>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <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,
	in direct quotations it's okay to use the particle both in the quote and in the main sentence,
	while in indirect quotations it's more common to use <strong>が</strong> to mark the subject in the quoted part.
</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>

<table class="ui celled table">
    <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

The verb to be

Hiragana 1

Kanji 1

Writing hiragana 1

Writing kanji 1

Hiragana 2

Kanji 2

The question particle か

Writing hiragana 2

This one and that one

Writing kanji 2

Reading exercise 1

Reading exercise 2

Hiragana 3

Negating nouns

Writing hiragana 3

The topic particle は

Kanji 3

The possession particle の

い-adjectives and な-adjectives

The subject particle が

Here and there

There is, there are

Writing kanji 3

Kanji 4

Group 1 verbs, direct and indirect objects

Group 2 verbs

Hiragana 4

Verbs in the past tense

Negating verbs

Invitations and the particle と

Negating past verbs

Writing hiragana 4

Reading exercise 3

Writing kanji 4

Reading exercise 4

Kanji 5

Nouns and the past tense

This and that

The group 3 verbs する and 来る

The discourse particles ね and よ

The location particles に and で

Hiragana 5

Writing hiragana 5

Writing kanji 5

The destination particles に and へ

Kanji 6

The origin particle から

Hiragana 6

Relative positions

Conjugating い-adjectives

Writing hiragana 6

Writing kanji 6

Hiragana 7

Writing hiragana 7

Kanji 7

Conjugating な-adjectives

How are you?

The particle も

The word ちょっと

Reading exercise 7

Katakana 1

Kanji 8

Numbers up to 10

Numbers from 11 to 99

How much is it?

Numbers from 100 to 999

Introduction to counters

Writing kanji 7

Writing katakana 1

Writing kanji 8

The 回-counter

Reading exercise 8

Katakana 2

How old are you?

Telling time: hours

Time and the に-particle

Reading exercise 5

Reading exercise 6

Kanji 9

Writing kanji 9

The days of the week

The months of the year

Telling time: minutes

Writing katakana 2

Using 〜間 to indicate duration

Greetings

The adjective いい

Like and Dislike

Katakana 3

Kanji 10

Let's and Shall We with the verb stem + ましょう

Expressing Desire: Nouns

Expressing Desire: Verbs

Expressing purpose with the verb stem + に

Writing katakana 3

Writing kanji 10

Katakana 4

Kanji 11

Reading exercise 9