To say that you want something in Japanese, the
が particle will be combined with the
い-Adjective 欲（ほ）しい ‘to want (A)’, or ‘to desire (A)’. This is exactly the same way as other
い-Adjectives behave when describing nouns.
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新（あたら）しい車（くるま）が欲（ほ）しいけど、今（いま）はお金（かね）が無（な）いから買（か）えない。
I want a new car, but I don't have any money right now, so I can't buy one.
-
犬（いぬ）が欲（ほ）しいけどスペースが無（な）い。
I want a dog, but I don't have space.
This use of 欲（ほ）しい is only used for saying that you want ‘things’ (nouns). The auxiliary verb
たい will be used when saying that you want to ‘do’ something (verbs).
However, ほしい may be used with verbs to express that you want another person to do something. This is done through the use of ほしい after the conjunction particle,
て.
For more detail about this, please see our
てほしい lesson.