modality N5 essential casualpolitewritten
たい — want to ~
たい
Builds on 連用形（ます形）
Meaning
- want to ~ — expresses the speaker's own desire to perform an action
Key sentence
冷たい水が飲みたい。
I want to drink cold water.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb (ます-stem) | stem + たい (conjugates like an i-adjective: たかった, たくない) | 行く → 行きたい |
Examples
今度の休みに京都へ行きたい。
I want to go to Kyoto on my next holiday.
もう何も食べたくない。
I don't want to eat anything anymore.
When you can't use it
- たい states the speaker's own desire (or asks about the listener's). You can't flatly say a third person's wish with it — ×彼は行きたい becomes 彼は行きたがっている ('he seems to want to go').
Easily confused with
Notes
- The object of a たい verb may be marked が or を: 水が飲みたい and 水を飲みたい are both fine, with が slightly emphasizing the wanted thing.
See たい in real sentences
Jengo shows たい the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.