Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 4: 14/18

～て欲(ほ)しいI want you to

Structure

Verb［て］+ ほしい

Details

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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, て. 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.

Related

Examples

--:--

    車(くるま)で来(き)てほしかった。

    I wanted you to come by car.

    コーラを買(か)ってほしいです。

    I want you to buy (me) a cola.

    一緒(いっしょ)にサッカーをしてほしい。

    I want you to play soccer with me.

    一緒(いっしょ)に食(た)べに行(い)ってほしいんです。

    I want you to go out to eat with me.

    毎日(まいにち)お弁当(べんとう)を作(つく)ってほしいです。

    I want you to make me a bento every day.

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てほしい – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (9 in total)

  • 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...

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