Saying what you want to do in Japanese

Level A2

Saying what you want to do in Japanese

A friend asks what you want for your birthday next week, and the one English word “want” won't carry you through the answer: Japanese says wanting a thing and wanting to do something in two different ways. Here you say both, place your wish in 来週 (らいしゅう, next week) and see whose wish these forms state: yours, or that of the person you're asking.

First, what you can already say

Before you want anything, bring back what you can already say. In these sentences に marks where you're going (駅に行きます), を marks what you eat or drink (パンを食べます, 水を飲みます) and が comes before 好きです. You'll also meet で, which marks where an action happens (ここで, here). Listen and repeat, because the ます form is where this lesson starts. With friends, these verbs are 行く, 食べる and 飲む.

Model: a birthday next week

Listen once without reading. The first speaker asks about a thing with 何がほしいですか, then about actions with どこに行きたいですか and 何を食べたいですか. New words: 誕生日 (たんじょうび, birthday), 新しい (あたらしい, new), 海 (うみ, the sea, here the beach) and 魚 (さかな, fish). アナさんの誕生日 is “Ana's birthday”. Nobody says “I” or “you”: the conversation already shows who wants what.

Wanting to do: verb without ます + たいです

Take ます off the verb and add たいです: 食べます → 食べたいです, 行きます → 行きたいです, 飲みます → 飲みたいです, 働きます (はたらきます, to work) → 働きたいです. 来ます (きます, to come) works the same way and keeps its き sound: 来たいです reads きたいです, as in また来たいです, “I want to come again”. The rest of the sentence stays as it was: 海に, 魚を and ここで don't change. たい ends like an い-adjective, so its polite ending is です, as in 大きいです (おおきいです, it's big). With friends, drop です: 食べたい, 行きたい. The base is still the form without ます: 行きたい, not 行くたい.

食べ／行きたい（です）

When: 来週

来週 (らいしゅう) means “next week”, and here 来 reads らい, not き. Put it at the start of the sentence without に: 来週、海に行きたいです. 今日 (きょう, today) and 明日 (あした, tomorrow) work the same way. A named day can take に, as clock times do: 来週の月曜日に行きたいです. Here 月曜日 (げつようび) is “Monday”, の joins the two words, and together they mean “next Monday”. たい says what you'd like to do; it doesn't announce a settled plan.

来週(らいしゅう)、〜たいです

A thing or an action: がほしいです or たいです

English “want” does both jobs; Japanese doesn't. For a thing, use noun + が + ほしいです, the same が as with 好きです: 水がほしいです, 新しい本がほしいです. For an action, use the verb without ます + たいです, with its usual particle: 水を飲みたいです, 海に行きたいです. ほしい (also written 欲しい) follows the noun and たい is attached to a verb, so one can't replace the other. Like たい, ほしい ends like an い-adjective and takes です, even though English says it with a verb. Neither one is a request: 水がほしいです states a wish, and at a counter you ask with お水をください (お水 is the polite way to say 水).

Whose wish is it?

ほしい and たい describe an inner wish, and in Japanese only you have direct access to yours. Use them about yourself, or in a question to the person: アナさんは何を食べたいですか. “Ana wants to go to the beach” is an ordinary English sentence, but アナさんは海に行きたいです tends to sound as if you were reading her mind; to pass on what she told you, a later lesson gives the right form. With an older person or a customer, たいですか can feel too direct, so invite with ませんか (“how about going?”): 来週、海に行きませんか.

Your turn, and the summary

A colleague asks about your next week. Cover the answers and reply to each question with something of your own, swapping 海 for 駅 (えき, station), 魚 for パン (bread) or 新しい本 for 水 (みず, water); only then check. In short: a thing + がほしいです, an action without ます + たいです, 来週 first without に, and the wish is yours or that of the person you ask.

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