how to phrase 'john said...'

[ggenglish]

so recently in a lesson i was introduced to the concept of '私は...と思う'.

Very usefull stuff. I was wondering if there is a similar type of usage for 'so-and-so said...'

So what would be the translation for something like:
John said we meet at 7pm.

Whenever there is two verbs in a sentence i freak out.

よろしくお願いします

[zakojanai]

The grammar looks like this:
(topic)は「(quote)」と言いました。

ジョンさんは「午後７時に会う」と言いました。would be how to translate your sentence.

And here is a much better explanation than I could provide: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/quotation.html

[ggenglish]

wow, i use that site all the time for good examples and explanations. i guess i didn't realize the technical name for it. the fact that 'quotations' means something. or 'peformance actions on subordinate clauses'. i think i get points for realizing it would be similar to the ...と思う lesson.

Thanks a million for a great reply with a great link for further study. very helpfull.