Tai-form ～たい

In Japanese, the "tai-form" happens when you add the -tai ～たい auxiliary adjective to the ren'youkei 連用形 conjugation of a verb, causing it to change to the desiderative mood. In other words, -tai means "want to" in Japanese, and verb-tai means "want to verb."

(beware of homonyms: tai 体, morpheme for "body," and tai 対, "versus." Those are also tai but not what this article is about.)

Manga: Boku no Hero Academia 僕のヒーローアカデミア

• Conjugation
• Suffixing to Verbs
• Causative Passive Tai-Form
• Chart
• -Tee ～てぇ
• -Tee ～てー
• More Examples
• やりたいこと
• しにたい
• 喜ぶ顔が見たい
• 触りたい…モテたい…
• 知りたくない
• を笑わせたい
• Further Reading

Conjugation

Since -tai is an auxiliary adjective, it's inflected the same way as i-adjectives in Japanese.

• katsu 勝つ
  To win.
• kachi-tai 勝ちたい
  Want to win. (base form.)
• kachi-takatta 勝ちたかった
  Wanted to win. (past form.)

• makeru 負ける
  To lose.
• make-takunai 負けたくない
  Not want to lose. (negative form.)
• make-takunakatta 負けたくなかった
  Not wanted to lose. (past negative form.)

• nigeru 逃げる
  To run away. To escape.
• nige-taku naru 逃げたくなる
  To become wanting to escape.
  [To start feeling like] wanting to escape.
• nige-taku natta 逃げたくなった
  Became wanting to escape.
  [Felt like] wanting to escape.

• nigetakute furueru 逃げたくて震える
  To tremble wanting to escape. (te-form.)
  Want to escape [so much that you] tremble.
• nigetakute kekkon shitai 逃げたくて結婚したい
  Want to escape and want marry.
• nigetakutemo nigerarenai 逃げたくても逃げられない
  Even if [you] want to escape [you] can't escape

Suffixing to Verbs

The -tai auxiliary is added after the ren'youkei 連用形 conjugation of verbs. See:

• de aru である
  de aritai でありたい
  Want to be. (copula.)
• donna ningen de aritai? どんな人間でありたい？
  What kind of human do [you] want to be?
• iru いる
  itai いたい
  Want to be. (somewhere.)
• soba ni itai そばにいたい
  Want to be nearby.
  [I] want to be [by your side].
• suru する
  shitai したい
  Want to do.
• nani ga shitai? なにがしたい？
  What do [you] want to do?
• kuru 来る
  kitai 来たい
  Want to come.
• asobi ni kitai? 遊びに来たい？
  Do [you] want to come play?

• au 会う
  aitai 会いたい
  Want to meet.
• kiku 聞く
  kikitai 聞きたい
  Want to hear.
  (often to ask something you want to hear.)
• oyogu 泳ぐ
  oyogitai 泳ぎたい
  Want to swim.
• korosu 殺す
  koroshitai 殺したい
  Want to kill.
• yaku ni tatsu 役に立つ
  yaku ni tachitai 役に立ちたい
  Want to be useful.
• shinu 死ぬ
  shinitai 死にたい
  Want to die.
• asobu 遊ぶ
  asobitai 遊びたい
  Want to play.
• nomu 飲む
  nomitai 飲みたい
  Want to drink.
• kiru 切る (godan verb.)
  kiritai 切りたい
  Want to cut.
• kiru 着る (ichidan verb.)
  kitai 着たい
  Want to wear.

Causative Passive Tai-Form

The -tai auxiliary can also be added to passive and causative conjugations of verbs. For example:

• fumu 踏む
  To step on.
• fumareru 踏まれる
  To be stepped on.
  (passive conjugation.)
• fumaretai 踏まれたい
  Want to be stepped on.

• yasumaseru 休ませる
  To force to rest. (probably not.)
  To let rest. (probably yes.)
  (causative conjugation.)
• yasumasetai 休ませたい
  Want to let rest.

• mitomeru 認める
  To acknowledge.
  To admit.
• mitomesaseru 認めさせる
  To force to admit. (probably yes.)
  To let admit. (probably not.)
  (causative conjugation.)
• mitomesasetai 認めさせたい
  Want to force [someone] to admit [something].
  Want to make [someone] admit [something].

• bikkuri びっくり
  Feeling of surprise. (mimetic word.)
• bikkuri suru びっくりする
  To feel surprised. (suru verb.)
• bikkuri saseru びっくりさせる
  To make [someone] feel surprised.
  (causative conjugation.)
• bikkuri saserareru びっくりさせられる
  To be made feel surprised.
  (causative passive conjugation.)
• bikkuri saseraretai びっくりさせられたい
  Want to be made feel surprised.
  [I] want [you/him/her/someone] to surprise [me].
  (causative passive tai-form conjugation.)

Chart

For reference, a tai-form conjugation chart.

-Tee ～てぇ

Sometimes -tai ～たい is pronounced as -tee ～てぇ instead. This is a colloquialism, a contraction in speech, so it's not formal Japanese. Nevertheless, it works the same way as the normal -tai.

• geemu yaritai ゲームやりたい
  geemu yaritee ゲームやりてぇ
  [I] want to play [video-]games.

This -tee ～てぇ is not to be confused with the casual quoting particle tte って.

-Tee ～てー

Sometimes -tee ～てぇ is spelled -tee ～てー instead, with the prolonged sound mark ー. It's the same thing, only spelled differently.

Manga: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 5, Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken Ougon no Kaze ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 黄金の風

• ichigo keeki ga
  kuitee-n-da yo'
  ore wa'!
  イチゴケーキが　食いてーんだよッ　オレはッ！
  I want to eat a strawberry cake!
• The dots on the furigana are for emphasis.
• The small tsu ッ at the end of phrases is for exclamation.

More Examples

やりたいこと

Manga: Aho Girl / Aho Gaaru アホガール

• Context: Yoshiko よしこ has been asked what she wants to do.
• yaritai koto...
  やりたいこと…
  A thing [I] want to do...
• :thinking:
• hito no ue ni tachitai
  人の上に立ちたい
  [I] want to stand above people.
  (as in, looking down upon them, like a king, etc.)
• sore wa......それは……
  That's......

しにたい

Manga: Demi-chan wa Kataritai 亜人ちゃんは語りたい

• Context: Sakie 佐藤早 attempts to look cute.
• ja... ja~~~n~
  じゃ…じゃ～～んー
  Ta... tada!
• do... dou desu ka ne~~?
  ど…どうですかね～～？
  H... how [do I look]?
• shinitai しにたい
  [I] want to die.
• Bonus: manga title
• ajin (demi)-chan wa kataritai
  亜人（デミ）ちゃんは語りたい
  Demi's want to talk.
  (*demi is gikun for ajin 亜人, "demi-human.")
• kataru 語る
  To talk. (about something, in this case, about themselves, probably.)

喜ぶ顔が見たい

Manga: Uchouten Kazoku 有頂天家族

• yorokobu kao ga
  mitai kara da!
  喜ぶ顔が　見たいからだ！
  Because want to see rejoicing face. (literally.)
  Because [I] want to see [her smiling].

触りたい…モテたい…

Manga: Boku no Hero Academia 僕のヒーローアカデミア

• Context: Mineta 峰田 being Mineta.
• haa... はぁ…
  Hah...
• nyotai
  sawaritai
  女体　触りたい
  [I] want to touch a woman's body.
• nyotai 女体
  Female body.
  (this ends with the morpheme for "body," tai 体, not the desiderative auxiliary adjective -tai this article is about!)
• sawaru 触る
  To touch.
• motetai モテたい
  [I] want to be popular with girls.
• moteru モテる
  To be popular. (romantically.)
• chokkyuu da ne
  直球だね
  [Direct, aren't you]?
• chokkyuu 直球
  Straight ball. (baseball term.)
  Direct. (when used as a metaphor.

知りたくない

Manga: Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san からかい上手の高木さん

• Context: regarding whether Nishikata wants to know the answer of something.
• iya...
  いや…
  [No... I mean...]
• betsu ni ii yo
  別にいいよ
  [It's fine.]
• shiritakunai-shi...
  知りたくないし…
  [I] don't want to know...

を笑わせたい

Manga: Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san からかい上手の高木さん

• Context: Nishikata waits for perfect timing.
• juppun-go
  １０分後
  Ten minutes later.
• aa, hayakuu
  Takagi-san wo
  warawasetai...
  ああ、早く
  高木さんを
  笑わせたい
  Aah, [I] want to make Takagi laugh soon.
• warau 笑う
  To laugh.
• warawaseru 笑わせる
  To let laugh.
  To make laugh. To force to laugh.
  (causative conjugation.)
• sowa-sowa
  そわそわ
  *fidgeting*
• This is a mimetic word.
• iya...
  gaman da ore.
  いや…
  ガマンだオレ。
  [No...]
  Endure it, me. (he's addressing himself, telling him to calm down and wait.)

Further Reading

• Hoshii 欲しい
  Another auxiliary that also makes "want" phrases.
• Hoshii 欲しい vs. -Tai たい
  The differences between these two auxiliaries.