と聞いた【ときいた】

The structure と聞いた is used to report something that the speaker heard from someone else or from some source. It combines the quotation particle と with the past tense of きく聞く (to hear), literally meaning "I heard that…"

The clause before と should be in plain form (casual form), regardless of whether the overall sentence is polite or casual.

Polite and casual forms

The verb きく聞く itself can be conjugated to match the politeness level of the sentence:

• Casual: と聞いた

  あす明日はやすみ休みだときいた聞いた。

  I heard that tomorrow is a day off.

• Polite: と聞きました

  らいげつ来月ねだん値段があがる上がるとききました聞きました。

  I heard that the price will go up next month.

Specifying the source

You can indicate who you heard the information from by using ～から or ～に.

Negative and past content

The clause before と follows normal plain form rules, including negative and past forms:

Related patterns

と聞いた is similar to そうだ (hearsay) in that both convey secondhand information. However, と聞いた explicitly states that the speaker heard it, while そうだ is more general ("I hear that…" / "they say that…").