Quoting others

[jampanman]

I want to gain a better understanding of relaying/quoting what someone has said.

I rarely hear the text book version of （人）が「＊＊＊」と言った/言っていた, instead I hear だって though I am unclear as to the usage of the latter.

When using the text book version it seems the other party may be a little confused what your talking about until you finally reach the verb?! It seems pretty common practise to put the verb first in books（（人）が言った。「＊＊＊」。）, is it also spoken this way?

So could someone please offer some guidance on a more natural approach.

Thanks ahead.

[Jessi]

The と part of と言っていました can be changed to って, which is what you're hearing (and the 言っていました can be left off completely).

So for example:
電車で行くと言っていた ⇒ 電車で行くって

Using just って is pretty informal, but you'll hear it a lot in casual conversation.

Hmm, in spoken Japanese I don't think it's that common to reverse the order when quoting someone - at least I can't say I hear it that way.

[jampanman]

Thanks for your reply Jessi.

So when should I use the copula だ　when quoting?

Thanks ahead.

[Jessi]

Use the copula when the quote ends in a na-adj, a noun, or anything else that would normally take the copula だ. For example:

[something]が有名だと言っていました (na-adj)
[someone]が学生だと言っていました (noun)

If the quote ends in a verb or i-adj, the copula だ is not going to be used (you would never put the copula だ after them anyways).

[something]が高いと言っていました (i-adj)
[place]に行くと言っていました (verb)

Also, just remember that when quoting someone, the quote is always going to be in informal speech. So no です or ます before と言っていました。

I hope that helps