How to express desire in Japanese

[Dmitry]

Ok, guys, today we`ll talk about how to say you want something in Japanese language. There are couple ways to express desire in Japanese.

1) To express your own desire (1-st person desirative) it is necessary to use たい [tai]. Desire expression is formed by adding たい to a verb of masu-form:

会う＋たいー＞会いたい [auー＞aitai] 'meet'

歩く＋たいー＞歩きたい [arukuー＞arukitai] 'walk'

急ぐ＋たいー＞急ぎたい [isoguー＞isogitai] 'hury'

話す＋たいー＞話したい [hanasuー＞hanasitai] 'speak'

死ぬ＋たいー＞死にたい [sinuー＞sinitai] 'dead'

学ぶ＋たいー＞学びたい [manabuー＞manabitai] 'study'

読む＋たいー＞読みたい [yomuー＞yomitai] 'read'

待つ＋たいー＞待ちたい [matsuー＞machitai] 'wait'

分かる＋たいー＞分かりたい [wakaruー＞wakaritai] 'think'

見るー＞見たい [miruー＞mitai] 'see'

伸びるー＞伸びたい [nobiruー＞nobitai] 'stretch'

食べるー＞食べたい [taberuー＞tabetai] 'eat'

するー＞したい [suruー＞sitai] 'do'

来るー＞きたい [kuruー＞kitai] 'come'

Ok, one more thing about たい. As you can see there is no たい form for ます because using たい to express one`s desire is intrinsically selfish. So, if you want to use たい and make sentence less selfish you can use 'I think/I would like to...' form (と思う[to omou]):

新しい車を買いたいと思います

[atarashii kuruma o kaitai to omoimasu]

I think I would like to buy a new car.

Also, to make sentence more poliite you may add です at the end of a sentence (because たい is an adjective):

新しい車を買いたいです。

[atarashii kuruma o kaitai desu]

I want to buy a new car.

2) 欲しい [hoshii] - to desire something in a particular state. It means that you cannot use the first form to say, for instance, 'I want this door red' because 'red' is a state of a door. To express a state desirative  you need to add verbal adjective て form to the adjective 欲しい：

このドアが赤くて欲しい。

[kono doa ga akakutehoshii]

(I) want this door red.

Important, note that even though these are verbal adjectives, they are still adjectives first hand. That`s why we use the particle が instead of を.

欲しい is also a selfish desire expression. To soften a sentence with 欲しい you can use です as well:

使って欲しいです。

[tsukattehoshiidesu]

I want it made.

3) There are a way to describe desire of second and third person. You just need to add たがる [tagaru] to a verb of た・だ-form:

君子さんが出たがるそうです。

[kimiko san ga detagaru soo desu]

It seams Kimiko wants to leave.

The negative form for たがる is a normal verb negative, being either たがらない or たがりません.

Well, that`s it. Now you can use these particles to express desire. Good luck!

[BWL]

Yes most Japanese will say that the "-tai" forms are too direct and personal to be used to refer to second and third persons. They say that "-tagaru" and its "masu" forms are much more polite especially when talking about others apart from yourself.