Yes, it’s time for another study update! Last week, I was looking at various uses for short forms. This week, we continued to look at this, and covered quoted or reported speech. This feels like pretty advanced stuff, but it’s not too difficult (if I’ve understood correctly!).
Basically, if you want to quote someone’s speech, you can just put a handy little phrase onto the end of your sentence: と言っていました. と is a quotation particle, which does the job of both the English word “that” in indirect quotation and of quotation marks (” “) in direct quotation. All you have to remember, is that the verb, noun or adjective which precedes “と言っていました” needs to be in its short form.
Here are some examples:
てんきよほう は 土曜日 は 雨 が ふる と 言っていました。
The weather forecast said it is going to rain on Saturday.
てんきよほう は 土曜日 は 雨 だ と 言っていました。
The weather forecast said there will be rain on Saturday. (I think that is the right translation, but please correct me if I’m wrong!)
てんきよほう は 土曜日 は すこし さむい と 言っていました。
The weather forecast said it will be a little cold on Saturday.
So there you have it – reported speech. It seems easier than it should, so I expect I’ve missed something somewhere along the lines! Very useful stuff though. I had to conduct an interview with a Japanese person for my homework this week and then report it back as reported speech. It was a good excuse to go to an izakaya with my head teacher from work on Saturday night! 
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