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I'm getting confused with my と and my という again. I want to say:

Writing "A" sounds good but writing "B" sounds bad.

My attempt is:

「A」という書くのはいいそうけど、「B」という書くのは悪いそうです。

My main concern is how to join the phrase「A」to the 書く verb, but comments on how I've mangled the rest of the sentence would also be appreciated. Thanks

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  • People, feel free to down vote me for this, but I'm pretty sure it's neither 「と」 or  「と言う」. Instead, use 「を」. Also, I'm in agreement with @Sombrero with reviewing the comparisons. It will be this sentence much less choppy. Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 23:36
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    @MissLavelle I am afraid that 「を」 is not an option here. You can say 「メールを書く」 or 「手紙を書く」, but you can never say 「(an actual word/phrase/sentence)」を書く.
    – user4032
    Commented Jan 17, 2016 at 0:40
  • @l'électeur Shoot. I was afraid that might have been the case, haha. Well, I tried. I learned a lot from your answer though, so thank you. :) Commented Jan 17, 2016 at 0:53

1 Answer 1

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As far as grammar, the following is the main difference:

「~~と」 must be followed by a verb phrase. When it is not, the verb has intentionally been left unmentioned.

[手紙]{てがみ}に、「[好]{す}きです」[書]{か}いた。(書いた is a verb.)

「~~という」 must be followed by a noun or a form of nominalization.

「こんにちは」というあいさつは、[夜]{よる}にはしません。(あいさつ is a noun)

With this basic knowledge, let us take a look at your sentence.

「A」という書くのはいいそうけど、「B」という書くのは[悪]{わる}いそうです。

Among the few mistakes contained (sorry but gotta be honest), the most serious one is the 「A」という書く part. You cannot say that as 書く is a verb.

You can say 「A」と書く or 「A」という[文]{ぶん} or 「A」というフレーズ. You need a noun to follow 「A」という.

(Of course, you can say 「A」という文を書く as you already have a noun following 「A」という. Are you following me? No pun.)

*****You might opt not to read further in order to concentrate on your more immediate question. I am just pointing out the following because I can't pretend to not notice mistakes.

You cannot say 「いいそうけど」, or more precisely, 「そうけど」. You must say 「そうけど」, 「そうですけど」, etc.

「B」という書く is also naturally incorrect. (Explained above)

「[悪]{わる}い」 is not the best or most natural word choice here because it sounds too direct for the Japanese taste. We would use 「よくない」 or 「[間違]{まちが}っている」 instead.

Examples of correct sentences:

「A」と書くのはいいそうですが、「B」と書くのはよくないそうです。

Notice I used 「が」 instead of 「けど」. Using 「けど」 is 100% grammatical but it sounds too childish (or informal).

「A」という文は[正]{ただ}しいそうですが、「B」という文は間違っているそうです。

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