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Plug and Play
Japanese Ghetto Grammar #107
Jappermon Alliance of Japanetic enthusiasts.
Let's say that one day, while visiting Japan, you find yourself wanting to tell someone in Japanese that you need them to do you something. We must tell them that we are desirous of something. We need to be specific... I mean you can't just want any old thing, I mean... watcha what do you really want?! What in the world could YOU possibly want? If the sushi is not up to your liking and you find yourself wanting rather a good ole' fashioned American Apple Pie, then you are going to need to tell the Japanese in their language. This will help you say this kind of stuff and more. Furthermore... by plugging in your favorite verbs into the construction, you can take your ghetto grammar over to the east side if you want. Even to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Let’s hope that everybody's Japanese is moving on up! Ok so where was I... Oh yeah about you wanting things done or just stuff you might want in General. Sometimes if I felt myself start to miss my family back in America I would want to see a good ole American movie. I wasn't happy unless I got to see a real American Movie. Not a Chinese movie starring Jackie Chan overdubbed in Japanese for my viewing pleasure... oh no...I wanted something specific and I wouldn’t be satisfied unless I got to watch my favorite American movies starring James Dean or Harrison Ford? (Those are the only movies in English that one could rent at the video store in Japan. Yeah not much of a selection but hey I can recite Rebel without a cause to you without a script.
Well, this is about to show you via my Japanese Plug & Play Ghetto Grammar or Japanese to the P squared G squared JPPGG method, how to say that you want something or that you want something done (by someone or something else).
The Japanese word around which we are basing today’s ghetto grammar is hoshii. Hoshii is a Japanese adjective and its meaning according to Sanseido’s daily concise Japanese English Dictionary is a want, or a wish for. Its kanji is made up of two radicals which resemble the words for tani (valley) and ketsu (lack, or missing, but is also in words related to thirst and throat) and together inside of the kanji for this word hoshii, it makes me think of somebody out in the middle of Death Valley California having no water but really, really wishing that they had something to drink. That is a wish or a want for something.
The Japanese construction for the equivalent English phrase of
--- I want noun - noun ga hoshii desu or emphatic no desu
Ex. a.) I want an apple! - Ringo ga hoshii desu!
Ex. b.) I want it now! - Ima hoshii! Etc.
--- I want you to verb - Verb (base TE) + hoshii desu. Polite form
Plain form would be verb (base TE) + hoshii without any copula, or by adding the emphatic all purpose sentence ending ...no da. This is less polite.
Super polite form would be - verb (base TE) + hoshuu gozaimasu. This may be a little too polite for any circumstance. Because you are in the personal realms anyway because you are sharing with someone else that you wish for or want somebody to do something. This bunpo will work when asked questions like the following:
Ex. 1) What do you want done? Nani shite hoshii desu ka? Or, simply Nani o shite hoshii? (Not as polite meaning what do you want me to do?)
Putting hoshii into its negative present form you can get sentences that mean I don't want you to do something as in ex 2.
ex. 2) I don't want anything done. Nanimo shite hoshikunai desu! (Without the copula)
ex. 3) I want you to see a television show that I like. Suki na terebi no bangumi o mite hoshii desu!
Since this adjective serves as an auxiliary, you can also put hoshii into the past or past negative as in ex.4
ex. 4) Kite hoshikatta kedo konakatta - I wanted you to come but you never came. (This little phrase turns out to be quite the alliterative tongue-a-twisty.) Say it 5 times fast! I dare you!)
Or
ex. 5) Kurisumasu puresento o akeru no o matte hoshikatta, ammari akete hoshikunakatta no desu, zannen... Mo^, shikata ga nay - I wanted you to wait before you opened the Christmas presents, I really didn't want you to open them at all. Too bad and so sad but I guess there is nothing we can do about it now...
Hoshii can be made into a verb by adding dropping the final i, forming the plain form stem hoshii and adding + ku adjective linker + adding the verb to become nark (One of the most used verbs in all Japanese)naru becoming hoshikunaru. Another way of saying the same thing would be by dropping the final i of hoshii and adding + garu becoming hoshigaru (v. to wish for, want),
A common mistake made in Japanese is to miss-pronounce double vowels as single vowels. Two ii together in Japanese needs to be pronounced like two different i's. Actually you re-utter the second i. A lot of times double vowels will sound like the same vowels just drawn out.
Here is a good example of which witch is which. Don't mistake hoshii, the adjective for wanting, with hoshi, the noun for the word star. The former being having its final vowel sound i held twice as long.
***BONUS SENTENCE - not available in any text book anywhere! ***
***Zutto mae kara kanojo o hoshigatte iru no ja nai to desu ka? Didn't you want to make her your girlfriend forever now? Or, "You have been wanting that chick for a while now haven't you?”
This concludes today's Japanese Ghetto Grammar Plug and Play bunpo method JPPGG for the month of July. Stay tuned for more incredible methods to help improve your Japanese language skills.
What about a * on the middle school teenager girl who died because she was 1-2 minutes late to school and the gate closed in on her. Japan is strict yo! No joke about that. Conform! Conform! Conform! Conform! ... Just kidding.
Ganbatte ne! Do your Best! Makurasuki Sensei.