A quotative (abbreviated QUOT) is a grammatical device to mark quoted speech. When a quotation is used, the grammatical person and tense of the original utterance is maintained, rather than adjusting it as would be the case with reported speech. It can be equated with "spoken quotation marks."

In Dutch, the preposition van can be used to introduce direct speech:

Ik zei er van Japie sta stil (a line from a children's song^[1]).

I said, 'Japie [colloquial diminutive of Jaap], stand still.'

Quotative van can be used in combination with a verb of speech, as in the above example, a noun designating something with message-carrying content, or a light verb, e.g. a copula (like for English quotative like).^[2]

In the specific colloquial combination zoiets hebben van (literally, "have something suchlike of"), the subsequent quoted speech conveys a (possibly unspoken) feeling:^[3]

De ouders hadden zoiets van laten we het maar proberen, wie weet lukt het.

The parents were like, let's try it, who knows it will work.

In English the most common quotative has historically been the verb say:

He said, 'You'll love it.'  And I said, 'You can't be serious!'

Starting in the late 20th century, the expression be like began to be used frequently as a quotative in colloquial speech:

He was like, 'You'll love it.'  And I was like, 'You can't be serious!'

In speech, the word like in this use is typically followed by a brief pause, indicated here with a comma. This quotative construction is particularly common for introducing direct speech indicating someone's attitude.^[4]

Georgian marks quoted speech with one of two suffixes depending on the grammatical person of who made the original utterance, -მეთქი for the first person and -ო for the second and third person.^[5]

The following sentences show the use of the first person and non-first person quotative particles respectively. Note the preservation of both the person and tense of the original utterances:

Note that this second sentence omits an overt verbum dicendi since the original speaker is already known, and context makes it clear that the speaker was the original addressee.

Ancient Greek can mark quoted speech in prose with the subordinating conjunction ὅτι:^[8]

In Japanese, the quotative と [to] is used to indicate direct speech in this sentence:

The following example shows the preservation of both grammatical person and the tense in a quoted utterance using the quotative particle:

See Japanese grammar for more examples of when と (to) is used.

In Korean, the marker 라고 rago follows the quoted sentence clause, marking direct quotation as follows:

The verb 말하다 malhada, "to say", is often shortened to 하다 hada, meaning "to do". This is because the quotative marker alone makes it obvious the quote was said by someone, so saying the whole verb is redundant.

Indirect quotation works similarly, albeit using different markers. When quoting a plain sentence, the marker ㄴ/는다고 n/neundago (ㄴ다고 ndago after vowels, 는다고 neundago after consonants) is attached to the quoted verb. When quoting adjectives, 다고 dago is used:

When quoting the copula 이다 ida, the marker 라고 rago is used instead:

Question sentences are marked with the quotative marker 냐고 nyago, which changes to 느냐고 neunyago after verbs ending in a consonant and to 으냐고 eunyago after adjectives ending in a consonant.

In Sanskrit, the quotative marker iti is used to convey the meaning of someone (or something) having said something.

In the following English sentence, no word indicates the quoted speech.

John said, "Wow,"

That is indicated only typographically. In Sinhala, on the other hand, here is the equivalent sentence:

John Wow kiyalaa kivvaa

It has an overt indication of quoted speech after the quoted string Wow, the quotative kiyalaa.

In Telugu, traditionally the words andi (for female and neuter singular), meaning she said that or it said, annāḍu (for male singular), meaning he said that and annāru (for plural), meaning They said are used as quotative markers. However, in recent times, many Telugu speakers are resorting to use the Latin quotation marks ("...") to convey speech.

For example:

In Turkish, direct speech is marked by following it by a form of the verb demek ("to say"),^[11] as in

'Hastayım' dedi.

'I am ill', he said.

In particular, the word diye (literally "saying"), a participle of demek, is used to mark quoted speech when another verb of utterance than demek is needed:

'Hastayım mı?' diye sordu.

'Am I ill?', he asked.

In contrast, indirect speech uses the opposite order. The reported utterance is preceded by the verb of utterance and introduced by the conjunctive particle ki, comparable to English "that":

Dedi ki hastaydı.

He said that he was ill.

• Verbum dicendi
• Quoted speech
• Reported speech