particle N3 common casual
〜って — casual って: quotative
〜って ・ って
Meaning
① quotative: ~, (he) said / I hear ~ — casual relay of speech or hearsay
② topic / quoting a word: ~ as for / the thing called ~ — picks up a word or topic to ask or comment about it
Key sentence
① quotative
田中さん、明日来ないって。
Tanaka says he's not coming tomorrow.
② topic / quoting a word
「めっちゃ」ってどういう意味？
What does "meccha" mean?
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Plain-form clause (quotative) / Noun (topic) | [clause] + って; N + って | 行く → 行くって |
Examples
① quotative
彼女、もう帰ったって言ってたよ。
She said she already went home.
雨が降るって。傘を持っていこう。
They say it'll rain — let's take an umbrella.
② topic / quoting a word
日本語の勉強って楽しいね。
Studying Japanese — it's fun, isn't it?
あの人って、誰だっけ？
That person — who were they again?
Easily confused with
〜と (quotative) って is the casual spoken form of quotative と (行くって ≈ 行くと). Confined to conversation; と is the neutral form for writing and formal speech. という / っていう In the topic sense, 〜って is a shrunken 〜というのは / っていうのは ('the thing called ~ / as for ~'), used to pull a word up for a question or comment.
Notes
- As a quotative ender, 〜って often stands in for 〜と言っていた / 〜だそうだ, leaving the verb of saying unspoken: 来ないって (= 来ないと言っていた).
See 〜って in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜って the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.