と聞いて in this sentence


山に登るのは大変そうだから、本当は行きたくなかった。  
_Climbing mountain seems difficult so truthfully, i didn't want to go..._

The second sentence is the one i need help with... I wasn't sure if i get it
right...  
でも ロープウェイを 使って登れば、大丈夫だと聞いて、行くことにした。

Rough literal translation that I grasp: _But,if using ropeway to climb, i
heard it is okay,then i decided to go._

So I somewhat understand it as: _"But i heard that it's okay to use ropeway to
go up so i decided to go in the end._

I don't quite understand 大丈夫だと聞いて part. I think the と is the quotative one so
it might means **"It's okay" i heard** . But if that's the case, why V-て
instead of V-た... Like what we do with と 言った.




You are right that と is quotative. The verb is 聞いて instead of 聞いた because the
て-form here is being used to chain a sequence of events together: the speaker
hears that it is okay to climb using the ropeway, and then decides to go.
Using 聞いた instead would be ungrammatical, since it is not the final verb in
the clause.

The same thing _could_ happen with 言う. For example:

> 彼は「さよなら」と言って出た。- He said "goodbye" and left.

Since it's followed by another action, 出る, the verb いう must be in its て-form.




You are right that と is quotative. The verb is 聞いて instead of 聞いた because the
て-form here is being used to chain a sequence of events together: the speaker
hears that it is okay to climb using the ropeway, and then decides to go.
Using 聞いた instead would be ungrammatical, since it is not the final verb in
the clause.

The same thing _could_ happen with 言う. For example:

> 彼は「さよなら」と言って出た。- He said "goodbye" and left.

Since it's followed by another action, 出る, the verb いう must be in its て-form.

