What does 냐고 (nyago) & 자고 (jago) mean?

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In Korean, to quote or relay someone else's statement, we can use the construction "~자고" (~jago) or "~냐고" (~nyago). 

For example, if someone wanted to say "He said that he would come," they could convey it as "그는 올 거라고 했어요", using "~자고." 

On the other hand, if we want to say "Is he coming?" by including an oral expression, we can express it as "그는 올 거냐고?" using "~냐고."

These sentence structure help to clearly mark one's claims or questions, easily allowing the speaker to communicate statements or questions from a third party. 

By understanding the use of "~자고" and "~냐고," Korean speakers can be more effective in conveying spoken information or detailing others' statements in everyday conversation.

~자고, ~냐고

In this lesson, we will learn how to quote "command" (~ 자고) and interrogative (~냐고) sentences. In addition, you will learn how to make a direct quote. Let's start.

Quoting an Interrogative Sentence: ~ 냐고

If desired, we can also say that someone "asks a question". When using this grammar, we can't use the particle ~ㄴ / 는다고. Because in this grammar we need to add ~ 냐고. The ~ 냐고 can be added at the end of verbs in past, present, and future tenses after omitting "다". Take a look at the following example:

Wrong examples:

우리언니는 나에게 뭘 했다고 물어봤어
My sister asked what I was doing
그는 간식 사고 싶다고 물어봤어He asked what he wanted to buy some snacks

Correct examples:

우리언니는 나에게 뭘 했냐고 물어봤어
My sister asked me what did I do
그는 간식 사고 싶냐고 물어봤어
He asked If he wanted to buy a snack

Quoting an Interrogative Sentence using 이다: ~ (이) 냐고

In this grammar, we need to add ~ 냐고 to 이다. As always, how to add ~ 냐고 to 이다 depends on the noun that comes before the 이다. If the noun ends in a vowel, we need to add ~ 냐고 after it. Take a look at the following explanation:

Question words can also be added to ~ 냐고, among others: 누구, 뭐 / 무엇, 어디, and 언제:

How do you say "I asked who was Seunghoon" in Korean

In addition to the tense in the example above, we can also add ~ 냐고 to 이다, to ask a question in a sentence that is in the future tense ~ ㄹ 것이다:

How to say "I asked him where he will go" in Korean

Direct Quotations

If we want to say "direct quote", the only difference is that the quoted sentence is conjugated like the original word. For example, if I want to quote:

How do you say "He said he didn't want to dance" in Korean

If we're going to write the sentence above, we need to include the use of a quote, but in speech, it's not necessary. Another example:

Indirect quote:

그는 당신을 아름답다고 했다
(He said that you're beautiful)

Direct quote:

그는 "당신을 아름답다" 라고 했어
(He said "you're beautiful")

All we need to do is treat the quoted sentence as a noun, then add ~ 라고 / 이라고 at the end of the sentence.

Ending Sentences without Conjugating Words

Except for all of the things above, we also often hear Koreans end sentences with quoted sentence clauses (~ 는다고, ~ 라고, ~ 했다고, etc…) without the following verbs. Let's look at the following explanation:

다고 meaning

But in most cases, the best way to ask someone for clarification on what they said is to use "뭐라고 (요)?" The sentence literally translates to "(Excuse me), what did you say?" By using "요," you can make it a more formal question to translate excuse me.

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