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Trying to use interrogative words in nested (indirect ?) questions has been
troublesome for me.

First came things like:

> 先生が何を言ったか知らない

Which I guess means "I don´t know what the teacher said". So far, so good.

However, I have been looking into using と for quotations, or for reporting to
a whole phrase.

For example:

> 彼はこれは何だと言ったか

Which I think means "What did he say this is ?"

But what if I just wanted to know if he said this is something or not, like:
"Did he say this is something, or didn´t he say it ?"

Would it be something like this ? (below)

> 彼は「これは何か」と言ったかどうか?

Lastly, if I wanted to say "Do you remember what he said this is ?", would it
be:

> 彼はこれは何だと言ったか覚えていますか?

If there is anything wrong with my guessed meanings, please let me know...
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-10-31T21:50:52.073
40553
2016-11-01T08:21:51.677
16203
question
questions particle-か interrogatives
Indirect questions nested inside phrases
What you guess is totally good but one:

> Did he say this is something, or didn't he say it ?"
>
> 彼は「これは何か」と言ったかどうか?

This Japanese sentence may be received as "Did he ask what this is?"

I think it is hard to exactly express it, but my best answer is:

> 彼はこれを何かだと言ったか？

The point is だ after 何か. Here 何かだ is expected to be received as "being
something", but not somewhat "being what".

Of course there is a better way to do almost the same, if you don't stick to
say it literally. For example:

> 彼はこれについて何か言ってましたか。
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-01T01:56:34.390
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2016-11-01T01:56:34.390
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
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answer
彼はこれは何だと言ったか is not a complete sentence but a clause that's embedded in a
sentence like 彼は（自分が）これは何だと言ったか覚えていなかった："He didn't remember what he said it
was".

"Did he say this is something, or didn´t he say it ?" is expressed as あの人、これ
が(/を) 何（か）だとか言ってた？ それとも言ってなかった？（or …言ってませんでしたか？） or so. Using 言っていた instead of
言った is another point. (This is difficult to explain, though)

彼は「これは何か」と言ったかどうか is not a complete sentence either, but a clause as in "He
didn't remember **if** he said "what's this" **or not** ".

彼はこれは何だと言ったか覚えていますか? more likely means "Does he remember what I/you/he said
this is?" than "Do you remember what he said this is?". If you want to make it
clear, the latter should be 彼 **が** これ は(/が) 何だと言ったか覚えていますか.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-01T08:21:51.677
40561
2016-11-01T08:21:51.677
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answer