Quoting in Korean – How to Quote People in Korean

Hi there~ Today we meet again in this post for a tad more complicated topic: quoting in Korean.

Have you ever wanted to be able to say “My mom told me to go to school”, or something like “I said “let’s go” !” or anything remotely close to this? Then you’re on the right page.

I will try to make it as clear and short as I can since it is not the easiest grammar point to learn, but a very useful one.

Let’s dive right into it.

Note : The article won’t be showing any romanization, as the topic is getting complex, and at this point it’s really important to have learned hangul if you haven’t already. Don’t hesitate to check my articles about it.

Table of Contents

Direct Quotations in Korean

“Quoted speech”-라고 하다

A direct quotation is the quoting of words of what someone wrote, said, or thought, using quotation marks. You’ll use quotation marks + -라고 to create a sentence.

Example : 

• Mom : “When do you come home” ? = Mom asked me “When do you come home ?”
  엄마 : 언제 젭에 와요? = 엄마가 저한테 “언제 집에 와요?”라고 물어봤어요.

Notes : 

• 라고 is often followed by : 이야기하다 (to talk), 물어보다 (to ask), 말하다 (to speak), 생각하다 (to think), 쓰다 (to write), 그러다 (to indicate), 부탁하다 (to request), or 하다 (to tell, convey)
• 라고 can be subsituted by 하고 and can both be used after a quotation in a sentence, but 하고 is used more often in stories or onomatopoeias. In daily conversations, 라고 is used more commonly.
• When asking a question about what someone said, you use “뭐라고”
  Example : 뭐라고 말했어요 ? = What did he say ?

Indirect Quotations in Korean

An indirect quotation is quoting without the use of quotation marks. The indirect quotations will be more complex than direct quotations because they change according to the quoted speech’s nature.

Notes : 

• The indirect quotes are often followed by : 물어보다 (to ask), 말하다 (to speak), 그러다 (to indicate), 전하다 (to tell, convey), 듣다 (to listen, to hear), or 하다 (to tell, convey)
• When the first person pronoun is used (저, 제, 나, 내) and appears in an indirect quotation, it is replaced by “자기” (see examples below)

Indirect Quotations for Declarative Sentences

N이라고 / Vㄴ는다고 / A다고 하다

This form is used when you tell someone something heard from another person, or when retelling your own statement.

Examples : 

• Jin : “I am a student” = Jin said he is a student
  진 : “저는 학생이에요” = 진 씨가 자기는 학생이라고 했어요.
• Jin : “I am eating bread” = Jin said he is eating bread
  진 : “빵을 먹어요” = 진 씨가 빵을 먹는다고 했어요.
• Jin : “The food is delicious” = Jin said the food is delicious
  진 : “밥 맛있어요” = 진 씨가 밥 맛있다고 했어요.
• Jin : “I will go to school tomorrow” = Jin said he will go to scool tomorrow
  진 : “내일 학교에 갈 거예요” = 진 씨가 내일 학교에 갈 거라고 했어요.

This infographic and the explanations above only talk about the present simple of quoting. Refer to this table for past and future :

Note :  depending on what you’ve been studying Korean with previously, you might know “adjectives” as another term. Some resources call “adjectives” (like 맛있다) “descriptive verbs”, because the term “형용사” can be translated in various ways, all meaning the same thing. They might also call “verb” “action verb”, to differentiate it from “descriptive verb”.

Indirect Quotations for Interrogative Sentences

V냐고 하다

This form is used when you tell someone a question you heard from another person, or when retelling your own question.

• Mom : When do you come home ? = Mom asked me when I come home
  엄마 : 언제 집에 와요 ? = 엄마가 저한테 언제 집에 오냐고 했어요.
• Jin : Paul, where are you going to eat for lunch? = Jin asked Paul where he was going to eat for lunch
  진 : 폴 어디에서 점심 먹을 거예요 ? = 진 씨가 폴한테 어디에서 점심을 먹을 거냐고 했어요.

Indirect Quotations for Suggestions

V자고 하다

This form is used when you tell someone a suggestion or advice you heard from someone else, or retelling your own suggestion/advice.

Examples : 

• Jinyoung : Let’s go eat! = Jinyoung suggested we go eat
  진영 : 밥을 먹자 ! = 진영 씨가 밥 먹자고 했어요

Indirect Quotations for Imperative Sentences

V(으)라고 하다

This form is used when you tell someone a command you heard from someone else, or retelling your own command.

• Teacher : Study hard. => The teacher told me to study hard
  선생님 : 열심히 공부하세요 = 선생님이 저한테 열심히 공부하라고 했어요.
• Teacher : Don’t miss school. = The teacher told me not to miss school
  선생님 : 결석하지 마세요 = 선생님이 저한테 결석하지 말라고 했어요

Summary

Let’s summarize everything we’ve talked about in this post about quoting in Korean. I created this infographic to help you with that. It doesn’t include the past and future, but it should help in case you need it.

Wrap Up

There you go ! I hope you can now quote someone’s words in Korean, and that the topic is a bit less blurry. Quoting in Korean is a very important topic that you should get used to, because it is used on daily basis. Later, we will learn some specifics like quoting with 주다 or the shortened versions of quotations.

Until then, happy learning, and see you later!