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Positive | Negative | |
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Non-Past | 行きたい | 行きたくない |
Past | 行きたかった | 行きたくなかった |
(1) 何をしたいですか。
- What do you want to do?
(2) 温泉に行きたい。
- I want to go to hot spring.
(3) ケーキ、食べたくないの?
- You don't want to eat cake?
(4) 食べたくなかったけど食べたくなった。
- I didn't want to eat it but I became wanting to eat.
Example (4) was very awkward to translate but is quite simple in Japanese if you refer to "Using 「なる」 with i-adjectives". The past tense of the verb 「なる」 was used to create "became want to eat". Here's a tongue twister using the negative 「~たくない」 and past-tense of 「なる」: 「食べたくなくなった」 meaning "became not wanting to eat".
This may seem obvious but 「ある」 cannot have a 「たい」 form because inanimate objects cannot want anything. However, 「いる」 can be used with the 「たい」 form in examples like the one below.
(5) ずっと一緒にいたい。
- I want to be together forever. (lit: Want to exist together for long time.)
Also, you can only use the 「たい」 form for the first-person because you cannot read other people's mind to see what they want to do. For referring to anyone beside yourself, it is normal to use expressions such as, "I think he wants to..." or "She said that she wants to..." We will learn how to say such expressions in a later lesson. Of course, if you're asking a question, you can just use the 「たい」 form because you're not presuming to know anything.
(6) 犬と遊びたいですか。
- Do you want to play with dog?
Though not a set rule, whenever words come attached to the te-form of a verb to serve a special grammatical function, it is customary to write it in hiragana. This is because kanji is already used for the verb and the attached word becomes part of that verb.
(1) 大きい縫いぐるみが欲しい!
- I want a big stuffed doll!
(2) 全部食べてほしいんだけど・・・。
- I want it all eaten but...
(3) 部屋をきれいにしてほしいのよ。
- It is that I want the room cleaned up, you know.
Like I mentioned, there are more appropriate ways to ask for things which we won't go into until later. This grammar is not used too often but is included for completeness.
To conjugate verbs into the volitional form for casual speech, there are two different rules for ru-verbs and u-verbs. For ru-verbs, you simply remove the 「る」 and add 「よう」. For u-verbs, you replace the / u / vowel sound with the / o / vowel sound and add 「う」.
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(1) 今日は何をしようか?
- What shall [we] do today?
(2) テーマパークに行こう!
- Let's go to theme park!
(3) 明日は何を食べようか?
- What shall [we] eat tomorrow?
(4) カレーを食べよう!
- Let's eat curry!
Remember, since you're setting out to do something, it doesn't make sense to have this verb in the past tense. Therefore, there is only one tense and if you were to replace 「明日」 in (3) with, for example, 「昨日」 then the sentence would make no sense.
Plain | Volitional |
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する | しましょう |
くる | きましょう |
寝る | 寝ましょう |
行く | 行きましょう |
遊ぶ | 遊びましょう |
(1) 今日は何をしましょうか?
- What shall [we] do today?
(2) テーマパークに行きましょう
(3) 明日は何を食べましょうか?
- What shall [we] eat tomorrow?
(4) カレーを食べましょう
- Let's eat curry!
(1) 銀行に行ったらどうですか。
- How about going to bank?
(2) たまにご両親と話せばどう?
- How about talking with your parents once in a while?
This page has last been revised on 2005/3/26