8.2 Direct and indirect speech

という — quoting or referring to content

という is used to quote, refer to, or label what someone said, or something that exists as information.

Basic structure:

Quoted sentence + という

The quoted content can be:

• A full sentence
• A phrase
• Even a single word

In indirect speech the quotation marks are dropped. The tense inside the quoted part stays as it is.

Note how the tense changed in the second example in English, but stayed the same in Japanese.

Indirect speech requires plain forms (note how the verb changes from the masu form to the plain form):

The same applies to です・だ:

と with other verbs

いう can also be replaced with other verbs, such as おもった思った, きいた聞いた.

という — introducing names and labels

～という is commonly used to introduce names, titles, or labels. In this usage, it works like “called …” or “known as …” in English.

Basic structure:

Noun + という + Noun

The second noun explains what kind of thing it is, while という introduces the name.

って — casual quotation

って is the casual spoken equivalent of と, the particle used to quote.

The verb that comes after って can be omitted.

Points to keep in mind

• という marks quoted or referred content
• って is the casual spoken form of と