Use of kanji when writing 言う I've been reading more novels in Japanese recently (: recommended!), and have noticed that it's unusual for to be written in kanji. Not just in set phrases like and but in attributions such as My question: are there any situations where it's required or would be more natural or unambiguous to write rather than ? If I'm emailing a friend would it seem pretentious to use the kanji?

Here's an excerpt I found: <

> Similarly, while as a word is more often written in kanji, in nominalizing and similar uses is usually written in kana.
>
> These uses are probably somewhat related to the fact that **common verbs attached to other verbs are very often written in kana**. So is common but it is nearly always , not rather than .

Also,

> Whenever you are in doubt, use Denshi Jisho or Rikaisama (or Rikaichan -kun -tan). All of them flag some words with “uk” or “usually written in kana alone”. If you aren’t sure where to use kanji, simply make sure to write these words in kana.

Personally when I email a friend in Japanese, I don't use the kanji. However, when I email a teacher, I tend to use it because for some reason to me it feels more proper and formal.
( But this is my own preference and may not reflect other's tendencies.