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So I learned about quoting with と言った a while ago and then i just learned that you can’t use it with ましょう because ましょう is formal. Well that makes sense and all, since formal words only go at the end of the sentence… But what if you wanted to quote someone talking formally? I hadn’t noticed at first that all the quotes were casual in his examples. So what if you want to quote someone who said “私は猫です”. Would you change it to だ even though that’s not what was said? Or is there an alternative way to quote?
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=^..^=Everything I’ve heard/seen from native sources seemed to indicate to me that when you’re quoting someone, you’re meant to quote them exactly as they said it. That is, if they spoke in polite speech, then you should quote them verbatim, even if you yourself are speaking informally to someone. And vice versa, if the person being quoted spoke informally or even rudely, you should quote them verbatim, even if you’re speaking to someone in the humblest Japanese.
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