In short

To report what somebody said, thought or wrote, put the whole clause in the plain form, glue と (to) to the end of it, and finish with 言う, 思う, 聞く and friends: 明日来ると言いました (ashita kuru to iimashita, “he said he’ll come tomorrow”). To report a question, close the clause with かどうか (ka dō ka, whether) for yes/no, or with a question word plus か for wh-questions: 来るかどうか分かりません (kuru ka dō ka wakarimasen, “I don’t know whether he’s coming”).

The rule

Step 1 - The quoted clause is plain, whatever the main verb does.

This is the register point of the lesson. Politeness is expressed once, at the very end of the sentence. Everything inside the と-clause drops to the plain form from lesson 17, even when the reporting verb is 〜ます:

• ×行きますと言いました -> 行くと言いました (iku to iimashita) he said he would go
• ×高いですと思います -> 高いと思います (takai to omoimasu) I think it’s expensive

Nouns and な-adjectives keep their plain copula だ before と: 学生だと思います (gakusei da to omoimasu), 便利だと言いました (benri da to iimashita). Do not swap in です here.

Step 2 - Direct 「」と versus indirect と.

A direct quote reproduces the words exactly, inside 「」 - and because they are the speaker’s own words, ます and です survive inside the brackets. An indirect quote paraphrases, so it obeys Step 1.

• 田中さんは「今、忙しいです」と言いました。 - direct, verbatim
• 田中さんは今忙しいと言いました。 - indirect, plain inside

Verbs that take と: 言う iu (say), 思う omou (think), 聞く kiku (hear / ask), 答える kotaeru (answer), plus the written 書いてある kaite aru (it is written, see lesson 16).

Step 3 - Japanese does not shift tense.

English backshifts (“he said he would come”). Japanese does not. Tense is local to its own clause: the tense inside the quote is measured from the moment the words were spoken, not from now. If his words were 「行きます」, the report stays non-past:

• 行くと言いました。 He said he would go. (he had not gone yet when he spoke)
• 行ったと言いました。 He said he had gone. (he had already gone when he spoke)

So never “translate the tense across” - just keep whatever tense the original speaker used.

Step 4 - 思います, 思っています, 言っていました.

These three are not interchangeable:

• 〜と思います - my own opinion, right now. Only the speaker. Use it for judgements, guesses and polite disagreement.
• 〜と思っています - a considered, standing opinion held over time. Crucially, this is the form you need for other people’s thoughts: ×彼は行きたいと思います is wrong, 彼は行きたいと思っています is right. You cannot claim direct access to someone else’s mind with a bare 思います.
• 〜と言っていました - reporting what someone said, softer and more natural in conversation than 言いました, which sounds like a formal statement on the record.

Two more useful habits: Japanese negates inside the quote, so “I don’t think it will rain” is 降らないと思います (furanai to omoimasu), not ×降ると思いません. And 〜(よ)うと思います (volitional + と思う) expresses a personal intention - 日本へ留学しようと思います (Nihon e ryūgaku shiyō to omoimasu, “I’m thinking of studying in Japan”) - which is picked up properly in lesson 38.

Step 5 - という: naming and defining.

Noun + という + Noun introduces a name the listener may not know: 田中という人 (Tanaka to iu hito, “a person called Tanaka”), 『雪国』という本 (“Yukiguni” to iu hon, “a book called Yukiguni”). Literally “a person one calls Tanaka”.

Two spin-offs:

• 〜ということ packages a whole clause as a fact: 会議が中止になったということです。 (Kaigi ga chūshi ni natta to iu koto desu.) It means / I gather the meeting was cancelled.
• 〜というのは〜のことです is the standard way to define a term: 「明日」というのは金曜日のことです。 (“Ashita” to iu no wa kin’yōbi no koto desu.) “Tomorrow” means Friday.

Step 6 - って is spoken と.

In casual speech って replaces と for quotation - 明日来るって言ってた (ashita kuru tte itteta) - and can even end the sentence on its own as a hearsay tag: 明日は休みだって。 (Ashita wa yasumi datte.) Apparently tomorrow is a day off. Separately, って also does the job of は as a casual topic marker: 田中さんって面白い人だね。 (Tanaka-san tte omoshiroi hito da ne.) Because って is casual, keep the rest of the sentence casual too - and keep it out of writing, exams and business email.

Step 7 - Embedded questions: かどうか and 疑問詞 + か.

A question inside a bigger sentence loses its question mark and its ます, and is closed off by か:

• Yes/no question -> plain clause + かどうか. 来ますか -> 来るかどうか分かりません。 (Kuru ka dō ka wakarimasen.) I don’t know whether he’s coming.
• Wh-question -> question word already inside + か. 何が起きましたか -> 何が起きたか分かりません。 (Nani ga okita ka wakarimasen.) I don’t know what happened. And どこにあるか教えてください。 (Doko ni aru ka oshiete kudasai.) Please tell me where it is.

A wh-clause is already marked as a question by its question word, so it takes plain か and never かどうか. Note also that the embedded verb is plain even in a fully polite sentence: ×どこにありますか教えてください is wrong.

Before かどうか the copula だ disappears: 学生かどうか (not ×学生だかどうか), 便利かどうか (not ×便利だかどうか). Compare Step 1, where だ stays before と - this asymmetry is worth memorising as a pair.

Typical main verbs: 分かる (know/understand), 知っている, 覚えている, 聞く (ask), 調べる (check), 教える (tell), 決める (decide).

Not this lesson. The か in 何か nani ka (something), 誰か dare ka (someone) glues to a single word and makes a pronoun; the か here closes a whole clause. 何か食べます means “I’ll eat something”, 何を食べるか分かりません means “I don’t know what I’ll eat”. See Indefinite and negative pronouns.

Forms & patterns

What sits in front of と and in front of かどうか - the だ is the trap:

The と family - four jobs, one particle:

Standalone question -> embedded question:

Examples

Common mistakes

• 田中さんは行きますと言いました。 (Tanaka-san wa ikimasu to iimashita.) -> 田中さんは行くと言いました。 (Tanaka-san wa iku to iimashita.) - an indirect quote is plain inside. ます belongs only between 「」, in a verbatim quote.
• 学生だかどうか分かりません。 (Gakusei da ka dō ka wakarimasen.) -> 学生かどうか分かりません。 (Gakusei ka dō ka wakarimasen.) - だ survives before と but is deleted before かどうか. Same word, opposite rules.
• 何を食べるかどうか分かりません。 (Nani o taberu ka dō ka wakarimasen.) -> 何を食べるか分かりません。 (Nani o taberu ka wakarimasen.) - かどうか is for yes/no only. A question word has already made the clause a question, so plain か closes it.
• 彼は日本へ行きたいと思います。 (Kare wa Nihon e ikitai to omoimasu.) -> 彼は日本へ行きたいと思っています。 (Kare wa Nihon e ikitai to omotte imasu.) - 〜と思います states your own current opinion. Someone else’s mind needs 〜と思っています.
• どこにありますか教えてください。 (Doko ni arimasu ka oshiete kudasai.) -> どこにあるか教えてください。 (Doko ni aru ka oshiete kudasai.) - an embedded question is not a question sentence: the verb goes plain and the か is a clause-closer, not the polite question particle.

Tips

• Quote first, verb last - the mirror image of English. English says “He said that…” and then the content; Japanese loads the content first and lands the reporting verb at the very end. When you speak, decide the whole quoted clause before you open your mouth, then tack on と言いました.
• と is the seam where politeness stops. Everything to the left of と is plain; everything to the right carries the register. If you can hear a ます just before と, something has gone wrong.
• かどうか is literally “か + どう + か” - “is it X, or how is it?” The どうか is the “or not” half, which is exactly why it cannot follow a question word: 何 already supplies the “what”, so there is nothing left for どうか to do.
• って is と in casual clothes. It is everywhere in spoken Japanese and doubles as a casual は, so learn to recognise it early - but write と in anything that will be read.