With all due respect henry,
It might hurts you when you say it in some colloquial situations.
Let me explain...
yhenry wrote:Excuse me, how much is this? 이거 얼마입니까?
Shop Owner - Sorry, what? 미안 하지만 뭐라구 말했읍니까?
I asked how much this is. [제가] 이것이 얼마냐고 물었어요
Too serious I think.
If you say this in real life I'm sure it will cause some awkward atmosphere like the night before a storm. (In Korean, 분위기 서늘해진다)
That depends on each speaker's attitude though they could give some serious countenance to the listener anyways.
This might be okay for foreigners but not for ordinary Koreans.
Of course not for a foreigner who wants to speak like a Korean too.
We are not studying languages for being like a foreigner on purpose.
Just saying 이거 얼마냐고요 would be more safer than being accurate in this case.
One more thing...
We rarely use the direct quotes as in English but sometimes with...
___라고
"저는 내일 학교에 못가요" 라고 데이빗이 그랬어요.
David said "I can't go to school tomorrow".
데이빗이 내일 학교에 못 간다고 했어요.
David said he can't go to school tomorrow.
Not to make things confused I'd better clarify this.
Because it will be a direct quote,
___ should be a noun or a whole sentence conjugated.
A: 방금 뭐가 지나갔어요.
I saw something passed by.
B: 고양이였어요.
It was a cat.
C: 뭐라고 하셨어요?
What did he say?
A: 고양이였대요. (고양이였다고 하네요/해요)
He said it was a cat.
alt)
고양이라고요. (고양이라고 했어요)
He said that it was a cat.
"고양이였어요"라고 했어요.
He said "It was a cat".
And when you quote an asking you might feel confused in using between 냐고 and 라고.
A: 이거 뭐예요?
What is this?
B: 뭐라고요?
What did you say?
A: 이거 뭐냐고요.
I asked what this is.
At this time, B didn't hear A's asking clearly.
A: 이거 뭐예요?
What is this?
B: 뭐냐고요?
Did you ask what it is?
A: 네. (이게 뭐냐고요)
Yes. (I asked what this is)
But at this point, B's trying to confirm what A asked about.
I hope I'm not making things more complicated.