Can I use 告诉 to quote what someone has said? Please help!

Question

I'm wondering whether the use of the word 告诉 is restricted to certain places in a sentence.

I'm wondering whether this sentence would be correct:

今年初，我的朋友告诉我他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。Is 告诉 allowed to be used to quote what someone has said?

Thanks very much in advance.

why not enter 告诉 into jukuu and examine their 100 example sentences? — user6065, Mar 22, 2017 at 11:43
English grammar distinguishes between direct (e.g.: he said :" ..."，quoting s。o。) and indirect speech (e.g. he said that ...), 告诉某人。。。 corresponds to "tell s.o. (that)..., i.e. indirect speech, one can add 说：告诉某人说。。。 which still could correspond to indirect speech, using quotation marks 告诉某人说:"direct quotation" may correspond to direct speech，i。p。indirect speech：。。。告诉我他这个学期。。。,direct speech：。。。告诉我说：＂我这个学期。。。＂。 — user6065, Mar 22, 2017 at 19:35
@user6065 direct and indirect speech (直接跟间接引语）seem to be concepts that exist in any language, i.e. any language would seem to distinguish between them, besides "quoting" usually implies direct speech — user6065, Mar 31, 2017 at 8:32

user3a · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-22 11:46:28Z

8

今年初，我的朋友告诉我他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。
It is correct. You can use 告诉 in this way.

You can add a comma to make it clearer.
今年初，我的朋友告诉我，他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。

BTW, the sentence can be simplified as follows.
今年初，朋友告诉我，他这个学期每周要打工三十个小时。
今年初，我朋友说，他这个学期每周要打工三十个小时。

answered Mar 22, 2017 at 11:46

user3a

1,5119 silver badges20 bronze badges

1

You deserve to be dipped in gold for such a quick and concise answer. Thankyou!!!
– Sulfly
Mar 22, 2017 at 11:48

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1