Basic Japanese grammar lesson: Using ～たい ~tai–to want to…
"I Want to… I Really Do, But How Do I Say I Want to in Japanese?"
Adding ~tai adds the “want to” meaning.
This is formed by finding the ~masu form and adding ~tai.
For example:
- To eat → to want to eat:
食べる → 食べます → 食べ＋たい → 食べたい
taberu → tabemasu → tabe+tai → tabetai - To Drink → to want to drink:
飲む → 飲みます → 飲み＋たい → 飲みたい
nomu → nomimasu → nomi+tai → nomitai
なにか飲みたいです。
nanika nomitai desu.
I want to drink something.
なにか nanika–something
飲みたい nomitai–want to drink [This is formed with the ~masu form of 飲む nomu–to drink + たい tai–(want to…)]
です desu–copula (usually like to be)
Next, let’s turn this into a question.
Notice in the above example, we didn’t use a pronoun. The “I” was understood. In this next example, we still won’t use a pronoun, but by adding the question marker か ka, the “you” is implied.
なにか食べたいですか。
nanika tabetai desu ka.
Do you want to eat something?
なにか nanika–something
食べたい tabetai–want to eat [This is formed with the ~masu form of 食べる taberu–to eat + たい tai–(want to…)] です desu–copula (usually like to be)
