Ways to Express Desire in Japanese: Tai and Hoshii

Have you ever wondered how to say that you want something, or want to do something, in Japanese? Or even how to say that you do not want to do something? Learning this is very useful in basic conversation. For that, we will learn the tai and hoshii forms. If Hiragana and Katakana still feel fuzzy, start with our KANA guide to Hiragana and Katakana.

• The tai form is used to indicate that you want to do something. (play / enjoy / kill / sing...)
• The hoshii form is used to indicate that you want something. (object / thing / person / animal)

Form "Tai" たい

When you want to say that you want to do an action, which is a verb, we use the tai たい form. The suffix tai works the same way as masu ます. In other words, if you want something, you should end the verb with tai instead of masu.

Example: I want to eat / tabetai desu / 食べたいです

Just like the masu suffix, -tai has its own grammatical forms.

	Present/Future	Past
Affirmative	tai desu	takatta desu
Negative	takunai desu	takunakatta desu

Here is a list of desires with the -tai form that you can study:

Verb	Verb - kanji	tai - romaji	tai - kanji	Meaning
kau	買う	kaitai	買いたい	I want to buy
matsu	待つ	machitai	待ちたい	I want to wait
noru	乗る	noritai	乗りたい	I want to ride
nomu	飲む	nomitai	飲みたい	I want to drink
shinu	死ぬ	shintai	死にたい	I want to die
asobu	遊ぶ	asobitai	遊びたい	I want to play
iku	行く	ikitai	行きたい	I want to go
oyogu	泳ぐ	oyogitai	泳ぎたい	I want to swim
hanasu	話す	hanashitai	話したい	I want to talk
miru	見る	mitai	見たい	I want to see
suru	する	shitai	したい	I want to do
kuru	くる	kitai	きたい	I want to come

If you learn this, you can start building sentences like these:

私は 車を 買いたいです。
Watashi wa kuruma o kaitai desu;

I want to buy a car

日本へ 行きたいです。
Nihon e ikitai desu;

I want to go to Japan

Form "hoshii" ほしい / 欲しい

When it comes to nouns, we use the term ほしい to say that we want something. Pay attention to how the sentence is organized:

(私は) noun が ほしい です
(watashi wa) noun ga hoshii desu

The hoshii form is very simple. Just insert the noun you want to say that you want something. The hoshii form can only be used for things and objects. It should not be used to indicate that you want to perform an action; for that, there is the tai form.

Just like the -tai form, hoshii has its own grammatical forms:

Format	Kanji	Furigana	Rōmaji
Simple Form	欲しい	ほしい	hoshii
Past	欲しかった	ほしかった	hoshikatta
Negation	欲しくない	ほしくない	hoshikunai
Past Negation	欲しくなかった	ほしくなかった	hoshikunakatta
-sa Form	欲しさ	ほしさ	hoshisa
-sou Form	欲しそう	ほしそう	hoshisou

Example Sentences

田中さんは犬がほしいです。
Tanaka san wa inu ga hoshii desu;

Mr. Tanaka wants a dog

あなたは何がほしいですか。
Anata wa nani ga hoshii desu ka;

What do you want?

今日は雨が降っています。傘がほしいです。
Kyou wa ame ga futte imasu. Kasa ga hoshii desu;

Today it is raining. I want an umbrella

私は恋人がほしいです。
Watashi wa koibito ga hoshii desu;

I want a boyfriend/girlfriend

私は日本人の友達がほしいです。
Watashi wa nihonjin no tomodachi ga hoshii desu;

I want a Japanese friend

私はとても忙しいから、時間がほしいです。
Watashi wa totemo isogashii kara, jikan ga hoshii desu;

I'm so busy, I need time

子供の時人形がほしかったですが、今はほしくないです。
Kodomo no toki ningyou ga hoshikatta desu ga, ima wa hoshikunai desu;

I wanted a doll when I was a child, but now I don't want it anymore

五年前にカメラがほしくなかったですが、今はほしいです。
Gonen mae ni kamera ga hoshikunakatta desu ga, ima wa hoshii desu;

I didn't want a camera five years ago, now I want it

If you want a second study route, you can also read How to learn Japanese with manga and anime?.

Video

Below is a video that can help with the tai form:

YouTube video