Expression of Desire in Japanese Language hoshii, ~tai desu (欲しいです、~たいです)

Hello learners, welcome to http://japaneselearningonline.blogspot.com^^, today, we are gonna learn about how to express a desire or wish in Japanese, like "I like animals, I like coffee" "do you like him" "I like to eat hamburgers" "I like to sing a song" "do you like eating" and so on^^. There are two ways to express a desire for first person, one way with hoshii (欲しい)、and the one way with ~tai desu (~たいです). Let's start with the easiest one, express a desire for noun using ~hoshii (欲しい).

Expression of desire for nouns ~欲しい (hoshii)

Use this expression if you desire or want something/someone, and this expression can only be used by first person (speaker), therefore the subject in this expression often dropped, but you can use this expression to the second person as a question. Take a look this formula:

noun + が + 欲しい + です (I want a noun/nouns)

Let's see the following example:

私はスマホがほしいです
watashi wa sumaho ga hoshii desu
I want a Smartphone

Notice, you can drop the subject "watashi wa", because in the real Japanese the subject often dropped and using the sentence without "watashi wa" instead of using it, so you just say "sumaho ga hoshii desu", sumaho is a noun means smartphone, ga is a particle, and hoshii is an i-adjective, so the conjugation is like i-adjective conjugation, and desu is a copula to make your sentence to be polite.

• Also read: Japanese Adjective Conjugations

Let's see the other examples:

林檎が欲しいです
ringo ga hoshii desu
I want an apple
苺が欲しいですか
ichigo ga hoshii desu ka
Do you want a strawberry
新しいパソコンが欲しくないです
atarashii pasokon ga hoshikunai desu
I don't want a new personal computer

There is no singular or plural rule in Japanese, so the examples above can be mean one or more noun, ringo ga hoshii= can be mean "I want an apple or I want apples".

You can use の or ん before です to "emphasize" your sentence. Example:

新しいスマホが欲しいんです
atarashii sumaho ga hoshii n desu
I want a new smartphone
その古いスマホが欲しくないのです
sono furui sumaho ga hoshikunai no desu
I don't want that old smartphone

Expression of desire for verbs ~tai desu (~たいです)

And next let's learn how to express a desire for verbs, if you want to say a sentence like "I want to bla bla bla" you will be use this expression. To make a verb into ~tai form verb, firstly you have to able to conjugate the verb into stem form or renyoukei, we learnt it in the preceding lesson.

• See again if you forget or have not learnt: 5 Japanese Verb Basic Conjugations

To make a verb into stem form, for group 1 verbs change the ending u-vowel to i-vowel on Hiragana, for instance, the u-ending became i, tsu-ending became chi and so on, and for group 2, verbs just drop the ru-ending, and for suru became shi, kuru become ki. After that, just attach ~tai to the end of stem form verb. See the table below:

~tai form conjugations
Positive	Negative	Past Tense	Negative Past Tense
Group 1 (Godan doushi)
kaitai	kaitakunai	kaitakatta	kaitakunakatta
wakaritai	wakaritakunai	wakaritakatta	wakaritakunakatta
kachitai	kachitakunai	kachitakatta	kachitakunakatta
shinitai	shinitakunai	shinitakatta	shinitakunakatta
yomitai	yomitakunai	yomitakatta	yomitakunakatta
yobitai	yobitakunai	yobitakatta	yomitakunakatta
kakitai	kakitakunai	kakitakatta	kakitakunakatta
kagitai	kagitakunai	kagitakatta	kagitakunakatta
tameshitai	tameshitakunai	tameshitakatta	tameshitakunakatta
Group 2 (Ichidan doushi)
tabetai	tabetakunai	tabetakatta	tabetakunakatta
mitai	mitakunai	mitakatta	mitakunakatta
karitai	karitakunai	karitakatta	karitakunakatta
shirabetai	shirabetakunai	shirabetakatta	shirabetakunakatta
Group 3 (Fukisoku doushi)
shitai	shitakunai	shitakatta	shitakunakatta
kitai	kitakunai	kitakatta	kitakunakatta

And the conjugation of ~tai form is the same with i-adjective conjugation^^. And same with hoshii desu above, this expression can only be used by first person/speaker, but can use as a question to second person^^. Here are some examples of ~tai desu expression:

あなたに会いたい
anata ni aitai
I want to meet you (I miss you)
毎日、ラメンを食べたくないです
mainichi, ramen o tabetakunai desu
I don't want to eat ramen everyday
日本に行きたいです
nihon ni ikitai desu
I want to go to Japan
あなたの側にずっといたいです
anata no soba ni zutto itai desu
I want to be there by your side, forever

All right everyone, actually, there are still some things I want to share about Expression of desire, but I don't want making you confuse, so I will wrap up this lesson and let you learn these two expressions by now, and I will continue this lesson later^^, maybe tomorrow^^, Ok till then you take care and have a great day, jaa mata ashita ne mina-san^^.

Posted by Riizhu

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