Quotes with と, って, and という
There are two basic types of relative clause. The first is the kind that modifies a noun, which we already learned in Lesson 14. The second is an embedded clause, often called a “quote”, like the underlined part of "He said that the war would end soon".
って and と, called quotation markers, often assume the role of marking such embedded clauses.
いいと思う I think it's fine. 見えると聞いた I heard that it's visible. 怖くないと言った I said I’m not scared
In English we distinguish between direct and indirect quotes through punctuation. For example:
“I will eat the cake,” he said. (direct quote) He said he would eat the cake. (indirect quote)
The same concept does not apply to Japanese where the distinction between a direct and indirect quote is more blurry. While quotation markers (like 「 」) exist and can help identify direct quotes, they aren’t required and you will see both direct and indirect quote show up “freely” in text just marked by a simple って or と.
The embedded clause inside quotes needs to be a “complete” statement, so if the quote ends with a な-adjective or noun, it needs to end with だ. There are some exceptions and usages that may drop this rule, but in the majority of situations you need to make sure だ is there or the sentence will sound wrong.
優しい人だと思う I think he’s a kind person
When it comes to quotes, って is essentially a colloquial version of と.
ダメだって言ったでしょ！ I said no, didn’t I? 何だって？ What did you say?
As you can see from the second example, the verb (“said”, “thought”, etc) can be often dropped if it’s obvious from context and tone.
In some usages って can also take the role of topic, similar to は. In these cases it’s not really a quote. It's just an alternative topic marker.
田中さんっていい人だね Tanaka-san is a good person
The construction という (often slurred as っていう or even っつう) is so commonly used that it has acquired additional meanings on top of its literal “I/they said”.
It can be used to “glue” together pieces of sentences in a manner that makes them flow better and feel less awkward. It is hard to provide a comprehensive explanation for all these cases, but you will see it often enough that it’s better to acquire a “feel” for it via exposure instead. Sometimes the という does not add any meaning at all, so don’t try to put it into English if you can’t.
It can be used to provide a definition or describe a quality. This usage is similar to である but has a slightly different nuance.
研究者という人間 The people that are (identified as) researchers 研究者である人間 The people that are researchers
It can also be used to provide emphasis by repetition in some set expressions:
今日という今日 (On) this very day 木という木 Every single tree