Meaning & usage
The particle と marks quoted speech, thoughts, or sounds before verbs such as 言う, 思う, 聞く, and する. It follows a complete sentence or quoted word in its plain form, as in バナナと言った or おもしろそうだねと言います, and it follows onomatopoeia or manner expressions like ぼーっと in ぼーっとしている. Quoted words keep their original wording and do not need to be changed for politeness. A common mistake is adding extra と after an adverb that already ends in と.
Example sentences 6
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今日はなんだか、ぼーっとしてるんだ。
My brain doesn't seem to be working well today.
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だが、ビルは「バナナ」と言った。
However, Bill said "banana."
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「アー」といってください。
Say 'ahhh'.
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「どうかしたの？」と小さな白いウサギが聞きました。
"What's the matter?" asked the little white rabbit.
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みんなもそうなのかな、と思うことくらいしかできない。
I can only wonder if this is the same for everyone else.
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「これはとてもおもしろそうだね」とひろしが言います。
"This looks pretty interesting," Hiroshi says.
In past JLPT papers
This came up in 10 past exam questions.
And 6 more tests.
