ほしい
- 1The speaker wants to have something (in questions, asks what the listener wants): "want ...".Ex. 1
- 2For a third person's wishes use ほしがる, usually ほしがっている.Ex. 2
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ほしい conjugates as an い形容詞 (ほしかった, ほしくない) and is often written 欲しい. In a stand-alone statement with no context it expresses the speaker's own wishes; in questions it can ask what the listener wants. To state outright what someone else wants, Japanese usually uses ほしがっている or reports it with ほしいそうだ or ほしいと言っている. To want someone else to do something, use てほしい; to want to do something yourself, use たい.
Avoid stating someone else's wish flatly as 彼は車がほしいです; use 車をほしがっている, ほしいそうだ or a similar expression.
ほしい takes a thing, not an action; for wanting to do something use たい, as in 日本に行きたい.
Asking superiors directly 〜がほしいですか can sound presumptuous; offer with 〜はいかがですか instead.
- 1.てほしいN4「てほしい」 follows the verb て-form and means wanting someone else to do something (早く来てほしい); 「ほしい」 follows a noun and means wanting a thing.
- 2.たいN5「たい」 attaches to the verb ます-stem and means wanting to do something yourself (食べたい); 「ほしい」 means wanting a thing and does not take an action.
- 3.がるN4「がる」 attaches to adjectives of feeling or desire to describe how a third person appears to feel; turning 「ほしい」 into 「ほしがる」 is this usage, for saying what someone else wants.
ほしい means wanting a thing. てほしい means wanting someone else to do something, たい means wanting to do something yourself, and がる describes the wishes or feelings a third person shows.
