Vocabulary

行く(い・く) u-verb

to go

何(なに)

what

する exception

to do

温泉(おん・せん)

hotspring

ケーキ(ke e ki)

cake

食べる(た・べる) ru-verb

to eat

ずっと

long; far

一緒(いっ・しょ)

together

いる ru-verb

to exist (animate)

犬(いぬ)

dog

遊ぶ(あそ・ぶ) u-verb

to play

You can express verbs that you want to perform with the たい form. All you need to do is add たい to the stem of the verb. However, unlike most conjugations we learned where the verb turns into a ru-verb, this form actually transforms the verb into an i-adjective (notice how たい conveniently ends in い). This makes sense because the conjugated form is a description of something that you want to do. Once you have the たい form, you can then conjugate it the same as you would any other i-adjective. However, the たい form is different from regular i-adjectives because it is derived from a verb. Particles we normally associate with verbs such as を、に、へ、or で can all be used with the たい form in addition to the particles commonly used with regular adjectives such as は and が.

Examples

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 the section about 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.

• 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.

• 犬と遊びたいですか。
  Do you want to play with dog?

Vocabulary

欲しい(ほ・しい) i-adj

wanted; desirable

好き(す・き) na-adj

likable; desirable

大きい(おお・きい) i-adj

big

縫いぐるみ(ぬ・いぐるみ)

stuffed doll

全部(ぜん・ぶ)

everything

食べる(た・べる) ru-verb

to eat

部屋(へ・や)

room

きれい na-adj

pretty; clean

In English, we employ a verb to say that we want something. In Japanese, “to want” is actually an i-adjective and not a verb. We saw something similar with 好き which is an adjective while “to like” in English is a verb. While I didn’t get too much into the workings of 好き, I have dedicated a whole section to 欲しい because it means, “to want something done” when combined with the te-form of a verb. We will learn a more polite and appropriate way to make requests in the “Making Requests” lesson instead of saying, “I want this done.”

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.

Examples

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.

Vocabulary

食べる(た・べる) ru-verb

to eat

入る(はい・る) u-verb

to enter

着る(き・る) ru-verb

to wear

信じる(しん・じる) ru-verb

to believe

寝る(ね・る) ru-verb

to sleep

起きる(お・きる) ru-verb

to wake; to occur

出る(で・る) ru-verb

to come out

掛ける(か・ける) ru-verb

to hang

捨てる(す・てる) ru-verb

to throw away

調べる(しら・べる) ru-verb

to investigate

話す(はな・す) u-verb

to speak

書く(か・く) u-verb

to write

待つ(ま・つ) u-verb

to wait

飲む(の・む) u-verb

to drink

取る(と・る) u-verb

to take

聞く(き・く) u-verb

to ask; to listen

泳ぐ(およ・ぐ) u-verb

to swim

遊ぶ(あそ・ぶ) u-verb

to play

直る(なお・る) u-verb

to be fixed

死ぬ(し・ぬ) u-verb

to die

買う(か・う) u-verb

to buy

する exception

to do

来る(く・る) exception

to come

今日(きょう)

today

何(なに)

what

テーマパーク(te e mu pa a ku)

theme park

行く(い・く) u-verb

to go

明日(あした)

tomorrow

カレー(ka re e)

curry

The term volitional here means a will to do something. In other words, the volitional form indicates that someone is setting out to do something. In the most common example, this simply translates into the English “let’s” or “shall we?” but we’ll also see how this form can be used to express an effort to do something in a lesson further along.

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.

Here is a list of verbs you should be used to seeing by now.

Examples

I doubt you will ever use 死のう (let’s die) but I left it in for completeness. Here are some more realistic examples.

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 the third example with, let’s say, 昨日 then the sentence would make no sense.

Vocabulary

食べる(た・べる) ru-verb

to eat

入る(はい・る) u-verb

to enter

する exception

to do

来る(く・る) exception

to come

寝る(ね・る) ru-verb

to sleep

行く(い・く) u-verb

to go

遊ぶ(あそ・ぶ) u-verb

to play

今日(きょう)

today

何(なに)

what

テーマパーク(te e mu pa a ku)

theme park

明日(あした)

tomorrow

カレー(ka re e)

curry

The conjugation for the polite form is even simpler. All you have to do is add ～ましょう to the stem of the verb. Similar to the masu-form, verbs in this form must always come at the end of the sentence. In fact, all polite endings must always come at the end and nowhere else as we’ve already seen.

Examples

Again, there’s nothing new here, just the polite version of the volitional form.

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！
   Let’s go to theme park!

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!

Vocabulary

銀行(ぎん・こう)

bank

行く(い・く) u-verb

to go

たまに

once in a while

両親(りょう・しん)

parents

話す(はな・す) u-verb

to speak

You can make suggestions by using the ば or たら conditional and adding どう. This literally means, “If you do [X], how is it?” In English, this would become, “How about doing [X]?” Grammatically, there’s nothing new here but it is a commonly used set phrase.

Examples

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?