Your question has to do with direct and indirect quoting, which has a few different cases to understand. It's a fairly involved subject. I'll show you the introductory basics. A1. I thought, "Omg he's so cute!" => "어머 남자애가 너무 귀여워!"라고 생각했어요. (direct quote) A2. I thought that he was so cute. => 남자애가 너무 귀엽다고 생각했어요. (indirect quote) * 남자애 = boy. ( 소년, 소녀 are literary words for books, 남자애, 여자애 are common everyday words) B1. She thought, "He's cute" => 소녀는 "소년이 귀여워"라고 생각했어요. (direct) B2. She thought that he was cute. => 소녀는 소년이 귀엽다고 생각했어요. (indirect) Both A and B above are for messages ending with an adjective (귀엽다). When it is a verb, it's slightly different. C1. I told my son, "I am going to work". => 나는 아들에게 "아빠는 회사(에) 가"라고 말했다. C1. I told my son I was going to work. => 나는 아들에게 아빠는 회사 간다고 말했다. In A and B, "귀여워"라고 has changed to 귀엽다고, and in C "회사 가"라고 to 간다고. (note "ㄴ" in 간다고) What's behind it are the four common sentence endings which all map to one form in indirect quoting. * 가다(v) can have ending forms 갑니다(formal-polite), 간다(formal-casual), 가요(informal-polite), 가(informal-casual). * 귀엽다(a) can have 귀엽습니다(f-p), 귀엽다(f-c), 귀여워요(i-p), 귀여워(i-c). For most verbs and adjectives, the "formal-casual" ending form is used to make an indirect quote message. So, "귀여워"라고 -> 귀엽다고, "귀엽습니다"라고 -> 귀엽다고, "갑니다"라고 -> 간다고, "가"라고 -> 간다고, etc. Understanding the above is the start. There are a couple more cases and exceptions.