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Taken from the manga 暗殺教室.

> 暗殺【あんさつ】は勉強【べんきょう】の妨【さまた】げにならない時【とき】にと言【い】ったはずです

My best guess for this sentence would be:

> I'm sure there has been a time I've told you that assassinations shouldn't
> get in the way of your studies

I'm mostly relating 時に here to 'has been a time' here, but what throws me off
is the と after it so would it be included in what he had said before? And the
translation just feels a bit weird in general. I'm mostly trying to think of
the difference between this sentence and 暗殺は勉強の妨げにならないと言ったはずです with the 時に.

> I'm sure i've told you that assassinations shouldn't get in the way of your
> studies

Is that right?
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2015-09-24T22:06:20.330
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2015-09-25T01:09:14.493
2015-09-24T22:08:40.210
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question
grammar
Role of 時に in 暗殺は勉強の妨げにならない時にと言ったはずです
Your second translation is in deed far better than your first, but it is still
missing something.

The 「と」 in 「～～と言った」 must certainly be quotative, right? It is if it directly
precedes 「言う」.

When you see or think you are seeing a quotative 「と」 , try putting in
imaginary quotation marks the part of the sentence that looks like it is being
quoted.

You will have:

> 『暗殺は勉強の妨げにならない時に』と言ったはずです。

Now, take a _**close**_ look at the quoted phrase above. To me,
『暗殺は勉強の妨げにならない時に！』 makes perfect sense without any alterations as I am a
Japanese-speaker, but does it to you? More specifically, does that part look
like a complete sentence to you?

If not, what you might need to do is to fill in the "missing" or "implied"
words. That is a big part of Japanese study to begin with.

『暗殺は勉強の妨げにならない時に！』 What is missing from this? The main verb is! It is the verb
to go with 「暗殺は」.

> 『暗殺は勉強の妨げにならない時に！』 ≒
>
> 『暗殺は勉強の妨げにならない時にしろ/せよ/しなさい/やれ！』

Make sense?

It should be clear now that the original sentence means:

> "I am sure that I have told you to commit assassinations (only) when it does
> not get in the way of your studies."
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2015-09-24T23:08:01.263
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2015-09-25T01:09:14.493
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer