Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 1

90 A ~tai form is an adjective. All of its forms follow the adjective patterns. Table 14. Affirmative, negative, past and non-past forms of the verb tabemasu. Affirmative Negative Non-past tabetai desu Tabetaku nai desu Tabetaku arimasen Past tabetakatta desu Tabetaku nakatta desu Tabetaku arimasen deshita X -tai desu is typically used to express the speaker’s desire (‘I want to …’) and to ask the addressee’s desire (‘Do you want to…?’) but not a third person’s desire (‘He wants to ….’) Describing other people’s wants will be discussed later. With the ~ tai form, the object of the verb can be marked either by the particle ga or o ( ga/o conversion). Both of the following sentences are possible and mean ‘I want to study Japanese.’ Nihongo o benkyou-shitai desu. What I want to do is to study Japanese. Nihongo ga benkyou-shitai desu. What I want to study is Japanese. Unlike the English forms such as ‘do you want to’ or ‘would you like to’, which can be used to invite someone to do something, the ~tai forms are not generally used as invitations or suggestions in Japanese. For invitations and suggestions, negative questions are more commonly used. Tabemasen ka? Would you like to eat it? (Invitation) Tabetai desu ka? Do you want to eat it? (Question) The verbs that do not occur in the ~ mashou form also do not occur in the ~tai form. These include wakarimasu, irimasu, arimasu and dekimasu . Drills and Exercises A. Cue: Kaimasu. I’m going to buy it. か 買います。 Response: Nani o kaimasu ka . What are you going to buy? なに か 何を買いますか。 Cue: Irimasu. I’m going to need it. いります。