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I've been reading more novels in Japanese recently (かもめ食堂: recommended!), and
have noticed that it's unusual for 言う to be written in kanji. Not just in set
phrases like という and とはいえ but in attributions such as 「みどりはいった」。

My question: are there any situations where it's required or would be more
natural or unambiguous to write 言う rather than いう? If I'm emailing a friend
would it seem pretentious to use the kanji?
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2018-06-05T13:48:02.007
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2018-06-09T04:53:16.360
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question
kanji orthography
Use of kanji when writing 言う
Here's an excerpt I found: <http://learnjapaneseonline.info/2016/04/28/avoid-
kanji-overload-and-write-japanese-like-a-native/>

> Similarly, while 言う as a word is more often written in kanji, という in
> nominalizing and similar uses is usually written in kana.
>
> These uses are probably somewhat related to the fact that **common verbs
> attached to other verbs are very often written in kana**. So 来る is common
> but it is nearly always やってくる, not やって来る；持っていくrather than 持って行く.

Also,

> Whenever you are in doubt, use Denshi Jisho or Rikaisama (or Rikaichan -kun
> -tan). All of them flag some words with “uk” or “usually written in kana
> alone”. If you aren’t sure where to use kanji, simply make sure to write
> these words in kana.

Personally when I email a friend in Japanese, I don't use the kanji. However,
when I email a teacher, I tend to use it because for some reason to me it
feels more proper and formal.  
(例えば、「何々と」言いました） But this is my own preference and may not reflect other's
tendencies.
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2018-06-08T17:42:42.210
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2018-06-09T04:53:16.360
2018-06-09T04:53:16.360
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answer