Wanting Things — ほしい

You know what you like. You know what you're good at. Today — what you want. And here's something beautiful about Japanese: wanting is an adjective, not a verb.

What You'll Learn#

New vocabulary: 欲しい / ほしい (to want, literally "is wanted"), 白い (white), 茶色 (brown), Tシャツ (T-shirt), ブーツ (boots)

Lesson Transcript#

The が Pattern, Again#

Same trick as 好き. The thing you want takes が. Then ほしい at the end. Add です for polite. Literally, it says — this thing is wanted.

Piece by piece. 白い is white — itself an い-adjective. Tシャツ is T-shirt. The particle が marks what is wanted. And 欲しいです means is wanted.

Notice the little の. You've seen の before connecting two nouns — わたしのかばん, my bag. Here it does the same job: 茶色 is brown, の links it to ブーツ, and together you get brown boots.

Conjugation — The Rule Pays You Back#

Because ほしい is an い-adjective, you already know how to conjugate it. Drop the い. Add the new ending. Same rule from episode 25, new word.

One new word and you already have four forms of it. That's the power of an い-adjective.

Cultural Note — Mostly About Yourself#

In conversation, Japanese people mostly use ほしい about themselves. Asking someone directly with ほしいですか — do you want this? — can sound a little blunt, almost interrogative. Native speakers will usually soften it or rephrase. For now, just remember: ほしい is mostly a word you use about yourself.

ほしい Conjugation Table#

Pattern Recap#