I heard that, I think that, etc.

[rhondavb]

Hello...

In my Japanese class we are learning "と思います", "と聞きます"、"と言います", etc. My question is, do you use the same structure to say "I read that..." と読みます。?

Thank you for your help! Japanese 4 is tough, and it's only just beginning.

~ロンダ (Rhonda)

[Psy]

So far as my studies have taken me, the only sense in which you use と読む is when you're reading something off, defining readings for kanji, etc... for example あのサインは「立入禁止」と読みます。"That sign reads 'do not enter.'" If you want to say you've read about something, say **something**のことを読みました。

Hope that helped. Corrections always welcome.

[sukoruduwan]

So...　"I've read that dogs eat." would translate to:

犬が食べてのことを読みました。

?

[Bueller_007]

So...　"I've read that dogs eat." would translate to:

犬が食べてのことを読みました。

?

In Japanese, you'd probably just use らしい or そうです to indicate that you'd read something, without explicitly stating "I read ~~".

猫はネズミを食うらしい。
I've heard that/read that cats eat mice.

[tiroth2]

Hmm...らしい here seems strange to me, although I could see it in specific contexts.

I'd have to agree with psy that 「何々事を読んだ」 sounds reasonable.

A very common passive construction for this is 「何々 事が書いてあります」 This isn't as direct a translation, but I think it might be more natural Japanese.

[Bueller_007]

Hmm...らしい here seems strange to me, although I could see it in specific contexts.

I'd have to agree with psy that 「何々事を読んだ」 sounds reasonable.

A very common passive construction for this is 「何々 事が書いてあります」 This isn't as direct a translation, but I think it might be more natural Japanese.

I'm not sure, but I believe を読んだ usually nominalizes with の, not こと.

ことが書いてある is correct Japanese, but I think it would be used more to talk about what was written in a specific book than to talk about the information itself. 何々が[新聞]に出た might be a better way to say the same thing.

らしい or そうです (with a によると before that if you wanted to indicate the source) is the most natural way, IMO.