Structure Legend
Structure
Verb[ます]+ たい
Verb[ます]+ たくない
Verb[ます]+ た かった
Verb[ます]+ たくなかった
Details
Part of Speech
Auxiliary Verb
Word Type
Dependent Word
Register
Standard
品詞
助動詞
単語の種類
付属語
使用域
一般
About たい
たい is an auxiliary verb that is used to express things that you would like to do (want). To use たい, it needs to be added to the same conjugation base form of a verb that ます would be attached to.
- 今夜はピザが食べたい。Tonight, I want to eat pizza.
- プロの歌手と歌いたい。I want to sing with a professional singer.
- 虫は食べたくない。I don't want to eat insects.
- 警察官になりたかった。I wanted to become a police officer.
- 昔は先生になりたくなかった。In the past, I did not want to become a teacher.
- 何が食べたい?What do you want to eat?
- オレンジジュースを飲みたかったの?Did you want to drink orange juice?
Caution
たい is not used to tell other people that you want them to do something. This is done with ~てほしい.- あなたはご飯を作りたい。As for you, I want to make dinner. (This can never mean 'I want you to make dinner for me', and is a fairly unnatural sentence)
Caution
たい is not usually used when giving invitations (asking someone if they want to do something with you). In these cases ~ませんか is far more natural.- アカネも行きたい?Akane, do you want to go too? (Sounds more like a question than an invitation)
Synonyms
Examples
日本に行きたい。
I want to go to Japan.
来年日本に行きたい。
Next year, I want to go to Japan.
早く食べたい。
I want to eat soon.
サッカーをしたいです。
I want to play soccer.
文法を勉強したいです。
I want to study grammar.
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Online
~たい: Want to do...
Imabi
Want to / たい
Japanese Ammo
DON'T Want to do
Japanese Ammo
Aeron Buchanan's Japanese Verb Chart
Wikipedia Commons
Offline
Genki I 2nd Edition
Page 254
みんなの日本語 I
Page 86 [CH 13]
Genki I
Page 214
Marugoto Elementary 1 (A2) Rikai
Page 96
[DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
Page 1 & 441
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Page 146
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たい – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (13 in total)
MikkaT
About 6 months ago
Hi, i’m sorry for asking a lot of questions, but I am really trying to understand how the grammar points are used.
In this box is says that it should be used with を or が.
But the examples never use が and even on the examples sentences page only a few use を.IcyIceBear
About 6 months ago
Don’t worry about asking questions that’s what these grammar point forums are for (◠ᴥ◕ʋ)
First, it doesn’t say that it should be used with を or が but rather able to use either. When marking an object of desire. So if the sentence doesn’t have that, then there’s nothing to mark. “I wanted to become a police officer” to become なる is always used with に, so no を or が in the なりたい sentences. For the 虫は食べたくない , the は is used for negative contrast instead. The sentence would still work with either を or が.
プロの歌手と歌いたい, again no object of desire. “I want to sing with a pro singer.” If it was この歌(を/が)歌いたい you would use either marker, with が having more emphasis
MikkaT
About 6 months ago
thanks for the explanation.
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