Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 4: 14/18

~て()しいI want you to

Structure

Verb[て]+ ほしい

Details

  • Register

    Standard

About てほしい

As mentioned in our lesson about 'saying that you want something' with がほしい, sometimes ほしい can be used as auxiliary adjective (an adjective that needs to be connected to another word in order to have meaning). In these cases, it will follow the conjunction particle, . When used this way, てほしい expresses that the speaker 'wants somebody to do something'.

To use てほしい, simply change the verb that you 'want someone to do' into its て-form, and then add ほしい.

Caution

てほしい can also be used to ask questions/explain about what other people want you (or somebody else) to do. Due to this, we will need to be careful when trying to identify who wants who to do what.

Examples

--:--

    (くるま)()てほしかった

    I wanted you to come by car.

    コーラ()ってほしいです

    I want you to buy (me) a cola.

    一緒(いっしょ)にサッカーしてほしい

    I want you to play soccer with me.

    一緒(いっしょ)()べに()ってほしいんです

    I want you to go out to eat with me.

    毎日(まいにち)弁当(べんとう)(つく)ってほしいです

    I want you to make me a bento every day.

  • Get more example sentences!

    Premium users get access to 12 example sentences on all Grammar Points.

Self-Study Sentences

Study your own way!

Add sentences and study them alongside Bunpro sentences.

てほしい – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (9 in total)

  • Pushindawood

    Pushindawood

    I want you to

    Structure

    • Verb[ ] + ほしい

    [てほしい is used for when you want someone else to do something]
    [たい is used when the speaker wants to do something or the speaker is speaking from someone else’s point of view ]

    View on Bunpro

  • ulurujamman

    ulurujamman

    Can you use してもらいたい to the same effect?

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    @ulurujamman

    Hey and welcome on the community forums Sorry for the extremely slow answer

    Yes, you can express the same idea using てもらいたい.
    It will have the same meaning, but will be more indirect and therefore more polite. Plus, てほしい is used MUCH more often than てもらいたい.
    You can make it even less direct by using てもらいたいんですが(and not finishing the sentence), it will make it into a more hesitant request.

    When you want to make a more humble request, when speaking to superior and the like you can use ていただきたいです (or again, ていただきたいんですが)

    I hope it helps,
    Cheers!

  • Melanthe

    Melanthe

    In this question:

    コーラを ________ です。[買う]
    I want you to buy [me] a cola.

    Why is かってくれてほしい not correct?

  • CrisH

    CrisH

    I basically came to ask the same thing, though I was going to also ask whether
    コーラを かってほしい です。
    specifically implies the “me” in “I want you to buy me a cola”, or if that’s just the most likely intent without any additional context, as I’d have read that as plain old “I want you to buy a cola”.

  • matt_in_mito

    matt_in_mito

    This is basically right. In most situations, the listener would assume you meant them, assuming there is no additional context. If you were specifically talking about someone else prior to that, then that could change the context.

  • siditious

    siditious

    I also want to add that it seems that 作ってくれて 欲しい seems like the correct response, 作って欲しい would be “I want you to make a bento everyday” and does not clearly indicate the verb of giving.

  • nekoyama

    nekoyama

    て・くれる is not used with て・欲しい.

    I’ve seen constructions like 作って渡して欲しい to say “I want you to make it and hand it over”, but the English sentences for this grammar point don’t say that.

  • supakaloru

    supakaloru

    hey guys, was learning about this grammar point.

    I have a question for this sentence: 手伝ってほしいの?
    It’s translated as “Do you want me to help you?”
    While the grammar point mentioned that てほしい means “want somebody to do something”. Hence, won’t the above sentence be translated into “Do I want you to help me?”

    While “Do you want me to help you?” would be “手伝いたがる?”

  • casual

    casual

    手伝ってほしいの? without additional context indeed means “Do you want me to help you?”

    Perhaps a useful way to think about it is that in questions frame of reference generally flips from speaker to listener. And so in questions people will fill in the blanks of missing topic, subject, object differently.
    Let’s look at some examples:

    行く
    (I will) go (there)
    行く?
    (Will you) go (there)?

    手伝いたい
    (I) want to help (you, or somebody else we were just talking about)
    手伝いたい?
    (Do you) want to help (me, or somebody else we were just talking about)?

    手伝ってほしい
    (I) want you to help (me, or somebody else)
    手伝ってほしい?
    (Do you) want me to help (you, or somebody else)?

    手伝いたがる
    (You, or somebody else) look like you want to help (somebody, maybe me)
    手伝いたがる?
    Do (I, or somebody else) look like I want to help (somebody)?

    So...

Got questions about てほしい? Join us to discuss, ask, and learn together!

Join the Discussion