たい (tai) Meaning Japanese Grammar - Want

たい (tai) is an auxiliary verb (suffix) used in Japanese to express an action you want to do.

When a verb is conjugated with たい, the speaker states a desire to do the action expressed by the verb.

In this post we are going to see how to conjugate verbs with たい, how to use it, and what meaning it conveys, through real examples of its use.

How たい is formed in Japanese

たい is an auxiliary that is applied to a verb to add the meaning of want to.

An auxiliary verb is a verb used in combination with another one to give a particular meaning to the verb form

The auxiliary たい is added to the conjunctive form 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) of the verb to which it is applied , the same used to conjugate the polite form:

Let's see an example with the ichidan verb to eat 食(た)べる:

Let's also see an example with the godan verb 行(い)く to go:

Conjugations of たい as an adjective

たい is conjugated like an い adjective to form the negative, the past, and other various verb forms:

The kanji form of たい is 度(た)い

When to use たい in Japanese

Different expressions are used in Japanese to distinguish and indicate what you want from what others want.

You cannot express what others want with たい. In these cases, other expressions are used, such as たがる.

たい is used to state what you want, and cannot be used to mean what others want. In particular, たい is used:

• When you want to express what you yourself want
• To ask what someone else wants

Express what you yourself want

The most common use of たい is to indicate what you yourself want to do.

Ask what others want

たい can also be used in questions to ask our interlocutor what he wants to do:

Particle が or を

たい can be used with both the が particle and the を particle.

The difference in meaning is that が indicates a more intense desire than を to do what is expressed by the verb.

It's also more natural to use が when the thing you want is specific:

In this example, the particle を is used, since music 音(おん)楽(がく) is a general concept.

If, on the other hand, we want to specify what kind of music, author, genre, then it is more natural to use the particle が:

たい and たいと思う

Examples of たい in Japanese