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I want to say:

One person I told about XYZ said, "...".

Knowledgeably incorrect translation:

XYZについて話した一人は「…」と言いました。

This makes it sound like they were the one telling me about XYZ. How do I write this so that it's clear that they are the one being told? The only ways I can think of makes it sound like they've had a moral offense committed against them (話された), or that they really wanted to know what I told them (話してもらった).

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I'm pretty sure you can just add yourself at the start with が.

私がXYZについて話した一人は「…」と言いました

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    I keep on thinking that I need to put に in there somewhere (outside について), like: 私が一人にXYZについて話しました。 Does the necessity of the に particle go away because of the reordering of the sentence?
    – idlackage
    Commented Sep 16, 2015 at 22:24
  • Does 一人の人 sound better than just 一人?
    – Darcinon
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 16:10
  • Another suggestion was made that 私に/からXYZについて聞いた一人 is also a possibility, a bit roundabout but has that に in there that I was obsessing over. @Darcinon In the paragraph this sentence was in I'd specified that there were a group of people and this is just one within it, but without that context 一人の人 probably would have worked better.
    – idlackage
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 1:37

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