たい

also: ったい

た

い

Common wordFreq.FrequencyTop 100

たい · i-adjective

Form	Positive	Negative
Dictionary	たい	たくない
Polite	たいです	たくないですalso たくありません
Past polite	たかったです	たくなかったですalso たくありませんでした
Past	たかった	たくなかった
Te-form	たくて	たくなくて
Adverbial	たく
Conditional	たければ	たくなければ
Tara conditional	たかったら	たくなかったら

Meanings

auxiliary adjective, i-adjective

want to do; would like to do

Attaches to the -masu stem of a verb to express the speaker's desire. In polite speech, ～たいです is common. For third-person desires, use ～たがる or other constructions.

日本にほんに行いきたいです。
I want to go to Japan.
何なにか飲のみたい？
Do you want something to drink?

particle

emphatic sentence-ending particle

Dialectal (Kyūshū) sentence-final particle adding emphasis. Not used in standard Japanese.

もう行いくたい！
I'm going already! (Kyūshū dialect)

suffix, i-adjective

very; extremely

Suffix attaching to nouns or -masu stems to form emphatic adjectives. Often colloquial and may appear as ったい. Related to words like めでたい.

Usage patterns

〈物もの〉が〈動どう詞し〉たいwant to (verb) 〈object〉 — object often marked with が instead of を
冷つめたい水みずが飲のみたい。
I want to drink some cold water.
〈動どう詞し〉たいと思おもうto be thinking that one wants to do something (softer than plain たい)
将しょう来らい医い者しゃになりたいと思おもっています。
I'm thinking I'd like to become a doctor in the future.
〈動どう詞し〉たくてたまらないto want to do something so badly one can't stand it
早はやく海うみに行いきたくてたまらない。
I can hardly wait to go to the sea.
〈動どう詞し〉たいものだexpresses a heartfelt or wistful wish to do something
一いち度どは富ふ士じ山さんに登のぼりたいものだ。
I really would like to climb Mt. Fuji at least once.

Grammar

たいwant to (do)N5

Related words

したい
たい attaches to the stem of any verb to express desire, while したい is specifically that form applied to する (to do).
がるN1
たい expresses the speaker's own desire directly, while がる is used to describe someone else's apparent desire or outward signs of wanting something.

Don't confuse with

たがる sense 1
たい expresses the speaker's own (or the addressee's, in questions) desire, while たがる is used to describe a third person's apparent desire, so learners must switch forms by grammatical person.

Written forms

たいUsage100%
Standard kana spelling for the auxiliary adjective and related uses.
タイUsage<1%

Etymology

Derived from the classical auxiliary adjective たし, expressing desire. The dialectal particle and emphatic suffix are later developments, possibly from contraction of たい or related forms.