Day #2.9.1

Lesson 13 (Part 1)

• Describing desires – “I want [noun]” & “I want to [verb]”

1. WANT [NOUN]

The stem word “want” is categorised as an ‘i adjective’, and it is ‘ほしい | hoshii’ in Japanese. We’ve learnt from the previous Lesson 12 (Parts I – III) that ‘i adjectives’ conjugate differently from typical nouns and ‘na adjectives’.

Conjugation for ‘ほしい | hoshii’:

(い adjective)       Positive                          Negative

Present                  ほしいです                  ほしくないです

Past                         ほしかったです        ほしくなかったです

なに が ほしいですか。 | What do you want?

–  –  –  –  –  – じてんしゃ が ほしいです。| I want a bicycle.

Sentence structure: noun + *particle ga + ‘ほしい | hoshii’

Asking “what kind of ~ you want”:

In Lesson 8 we learnt how to ask “what kind of ~”, and we used the question word ‘どんな | donna’. This question can be added into a sentence to ask “what kind of bicycle you want” –

どんな じてんしゃ が ほしいですか。| What kind of bicycle do you want?

–  –  –  –  –  – しろい じてんしゃ が ほしいです。|  I want a white bicycle.

 

 

 

 

 

私 は あ たたらしい カメラ が ほしい です。

私 は あかい くるま が ほしいです。

2. WANT TO [VERB]

When expressing a desire to do an action, the verb needs to be conjugated, from a typical ‘ます | masu’ form to ‘たい | tai’ form.  When it is in the ‘たい | tai’ form, the newly conjugated verb becomes an ‘い adjective’.

おいしい コーヒーを 飲みたいです。 | I want to drink yummy coffee.

Sentence structure: adjective + noun + *particle o + conjugated verb in ‘tai’ form

テニス を したいです。 | I want to play tennis.

日本 へ いきたいです。 | I want to go to Japan. (particle here is ‘へ | e’ because it is a place marker)

***** The particle ‘を | o’ can be replaced with ‘が | ga’

何を 買いたいですか。 | What do you want to buy?

–  –  –  –  –  –  あたらしい けだいでんわ を かいたいです。 | I want to buy a new phone.

いつ ほっかいどう へ いきたいですか。 | When do you want to go to hokkaido?

–  –  –  –  –  –  十二月 の 休み に 北海道 へ 行きたいです。

どこ へ いきたいですか。 どうしてですか。 – practice questions!