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Tweet of the Week #63: This Awful Carpet Design Has Twitter Trippin’

Learn how to use the expression して欲しい with this week's viral tweet.

By 2 min read

Ever walked into a building in Japan and wonder what the hell happened? We know we have.

This carpet design is so messed-up, it can only be intentional.

A bad floor or stair pattern can easily play tricks on our minds, altering how we perceive distance and where to walk. Alas, architects and interior designers’ all too often prioritize looks over practicality.

Among all the designs you could pick for your new building, stealthy camouflage patterns are probably the absolute worst. Unless you intentionally want people to feel like they’re about to fall down the stairs.

こういう階段かいだんつくやつ全員ぜんいん捻挫ねんざしてほしい。= I’d like the people who built this staircase to sprain their ankles.

While we don’t condone violence, we can certainly sympathize with the sentiment.

How to express you’d like someone to do something in Japanese

Learning how to express that you’d like “to do something” is easy. You simply add the suffix たい to a verb stem and voila. (Note that たい acts like an い-adjective).

  • I want to study Japanese in Japan. = 日本にほん日本語にほんご勉強べんきょうしたいです。

But since the suffix たい expresses your desire to do something yourself, you can’t really employ this form when you want someone else to do the action. Instead, you’ll use a particular expression built with しい.

欲しい is an い-adjective which translates to “to want.”

  • I want a Japanese textbook = 日本語の教科書きょうかしょが欲しいです。

So, to say you want someone (a doer) to do an action, you’ll use the expression して欲しい. To be more precise, the sentence would look as follows:

  • (わたしは)* doer に verb て欲しい (です).

*In Japanese, the subject is often omitted.

I want my parents to buy a Japanese textbook = 両親りょうしんに日本語の教科書をって欲しいです。

Vocabulary

Japanese Romaji English
こういう kouiu such
 階段かいだん kaidan stairs
 つく tsukuru make
 やつ yatsu guy
 全員ぜんいん zenin all of
 捻挫ねんざする nenza suru sprain one’s ankle
 してほしい shitehoshii want someone to do
 日本にほん nihon Japan
 日本語にほんご nihongo Japanese
 勉強べんきょうする benkyou suru study
 教科書きょうかしょ kyoukasho manual
しい hoshii want
 両親りょうしん ryoushin parent, parents
  kau buy

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