So What Do You Want?
“Minds are like parachutes, they function only when open.” - Unknown
With verbs and たい form, it’s basically the same as what you learned before in the verbs chapters. This time, though, instead of ます you’re going to use たい.
audio.mp3すし を たべます
I will eat sushi
audio.mp3すし を たべたい です
I want to eat sushi
audio.mp3とうきょう に いきました
I went to Tokyo
audio.mp3とうきょう に いきたかった です
I wanted to go to Tokyo
This works for both を and に verbs. As long as you know the basic verb patterns (as well as たい form and its conjugation), not much has changed, and this should all look familiar.
With ほしい, the pattern is just like what you learned in the い adjective section as well as with すき and きらい. Even better, ほしい is an い adjective, which means you can treat it exactly the same as one.
audio.mp3すし が ほしい です
I want sushi
audio.mp3すし が ほしくない です
I do not want sushi
With these two simple patterns, you’re armed with a lot of firepower. Basically, you can tell the world what you want, don’t want, did want, and didn’t want. We’ll expand on some of the intricacies of these grammar points on the next page, but for now, let’s keep things nice and simple. You just started learning these, after all. Let’s practice using several different, but very similar questions. These should help you differentiate between たい and ほしい.
What book do you want?
audio.mp3ハリーポッター が ほしい です
I want Harry Potter
What book do you want to read?
audio.mp3ハリーポッター を よみたい です
I want to read Harry Potter
What movie do you want to watch?
audio.mp3Batman を みたい です
I want to watch Batman
What movie do you want?
audio.mp3Batman が ほしい です
I want Batman
Do you see the difference between what you want to do and what you want? Your turn – try to translate these sentences.
I want to eat Ramen
audio.mp3ラーメン を たべたい です
I want Ramen
audio.mp3ラーメン が ほしい です
I do not want to eat a hamburger
audio.mp3ハンバーガー を たべたくない です
I did want to eat a hamburger
audio.mp3ハンバーガー を たべたかった です
I did want to learn French
audio.mp3フランスご を ならいたかった です
I want an apple
audio.mp3りんご が ほしい です
I want Bob’s apple
audio.mp3ボブさん の りんご が ほしいです
I do not want Joe’s apple
audio.mp3ジョーさん の りんご が ほしくない です
I want to eat Bob’s apple
audio.mp3ボブさんの りんご を たべたい です
That’s a bunch of examples touching on what you just learned, but if you can’t come up with your own stuff then that’s no good. The following worksheet was designed to help you do just that. It’s similar to the previous ほしい worksheet, but now you get to work with both ほしい and たい as well as the various tenses you now know how to use.