Today I am going to share the Q&A quoted from my JLPT N4 course!

 

[Student question]

先生、すみません。
In the sentence と言っていました,
can I know why してください is changed to しろ？
Is it because it’s imperative form?
But wouldn’t it sound rude?

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[My Reply]

You might be wondering why we say ‘しろと言っていました’ instead of ‘してくださいと言っていました,’ given that ‘してください’ is more polite than ‘しろ,’ which is an imperative form.

Using the imperative form in this context would not sound rude at all because it is a quotation.

しろ is the plain style of してください.
してください (polite style) = しろ (verb imperative form, plain style)

When you say してくださいと言っていました, it seems to me that it contains quotation marks「」, not quotes.

「してください」と言っていました
→ Use the “plain style” for the quotation
→しろと言っていました.

 

I hope my answer helps you. 😊

 

In the JLPT course, you can ask me any questions as much as you want.
I will teach you until you get it!