～って

～って is one of the most common particles in casual spoken Japanese. It does two jobs: it marks a topic the speaker wants to ask or comment about (a relaxed version of は or というのは), and it marks a quote or hearsay (a relaxed version of と or と言っていた).

Depending on the job, it corresponds to English “as for ...”, “the thing called ...”, or “they say ...”.

1. Casual topic marker

After a noun, って brings it up as the topic, often to ask “what/who is that?” or to give an opinion about it.

2. Quoting and hearsay

After a plain clause, って reports what someone said or what the speaker heard. At the end of a sentence it can stand alone, meaning “... they say” or “... I heard”.

Unlike ～なんて, which loads the noun or clause with surprise or disdain, って is emotionally neutral. It simply raises a topic or passes along words.

How to form it

Noun + って (topic) / plain clause + って (quote or hearsay)

• 田中さんは（たなかさんは）= as for Tanaka → 田中さんって（たなかさんって）= as for Tanaka (casual)
• 雨だと聞いた（あめだときいた）= I heard it will rain → 雨だって（あめだって）= it'll rain, they say
• 行くと言っていた（いくといっていた）= said (he) would go → 行くって（いくって）= (he) says he's going

Key idea

って is the spoken shortcut for two longer forms: は／というのは when raising a topic, and と（言っていた） when quoting. Casual conversation runs on it.