～たい (tai) - Expressing Personal Desires

This grammar point is a bit of a shapeshifter. You start with a verb, but once you add ～たい, it starts behaving like an い-adjective. This is a crucial detail to remember. Because it acts like an adjective, you will conjugate it just like おいしい (delicious) or たかい (expensive). To make it negative, you change it to ～たくない. To make it past tense, it becomes ～たかった. It is a verb-adjective hybrid that gives you a lot of power. This transformation is what allows you to express not just what you do, but what you feel like doing.

1. 1Creating the ～たい form is a simple three-step process.
2. 2Start with the polite ます form of any verb.
3. 3Remove the ます ending entirely.
4. 4Attach たい to the remaining verb stem.
5. 5Let's try it with the verb たべます (to eat).
6. 6Step 1: たべます
7. 7Step 2: たべ
8. 8Step 3: たべたい (I want to eat).
9. 9How about のみます (to drink)?
10. 10Step 1: のみます
11. 11Step 2: のみ
12. 12Step 3: のみたい (I want to drink).
13. 13It works the same for irregular verbs too!
14. 14します (to do) becomes したい.
15. 15きます (to come) becomes きたい.
16. 16If you want to be polite, just add です at the end. たべたいです sounds much better when talking to your teacher or a waiter.

Use ～たい when you are talking about your own desires. It is perfect for real-world scenarios. Imagine you are at a ramen shop. You can say ラーメンをたべたいです (I want to eat ramen). Or maybe you are planning a weekend with friends. You might say えいがをみたい (I want to watch a movie). It is also great for asking questions to people you are close with. You can ask a friend なにをしたい？ (What do you want to do?). It is direct, honest, and very useful. Think of it like a grammar traffic light—it gives you the green light to share your inner thoughts.

Here is the golden rule: Do not use ～たい to talk about what someone else wants. Japanese culture values social distance and modesty. You cannot truly know what is inside someone else's head. If you say たなかさんはおちゃをのみたいです, it sounds like you are claiming to be a mind reader. (Unless you actually are a mind reader, in which case, please teach me your secrets!). For other people, we use different patterns like ～たがっている. Also, avoid using ～たいです when talking to people of much higher status, like a CEO. It can sound a bit too demanding or childish. In those cases, softer expressions are better.

One of the biggest hurdles is the object marker. Usually, verbs take を. However, with ～たい, you can use either を or が. Many people stick to を, but が is actually very common and emphasizes the object. For example, みずがのみたい emphasizes that it is *water* you want. Another mistake is forgetting the adjective rules. Do not say たべたいじゃない. Since it is an い-adjective now, you must say たべたくない. Yes, even native speakers mess this up sometimes when they are tired! Finally, don't use it for objects. If you want a physical thing like a car, use ほしい, not ～たい.

The biggest rival to ～たい is ～ほしい. The difference is simple: ～たい is for actions (verbs), and ～ほしい is for things (nouns).

• くるまがほしい = I want a car (Noun).
• くるまをかいたい = I want to buy a car (Action).

Another contrast is with ～ましょう. ～ましょう is an invitation like "Let's do it." ～たい is just your personal feeling. If you say たべたいです, you are stating a fact about your hunger. If you say たべましょう, you are asking someone to join you.