Quick Reference

Meaning & Definition

Hoshii is the go-to word when you want a thing — a new phone, a pet, a slice of cake. Unlike English’s single word “want,” Japanese splits desire neatly in two: hoshii for nouns, and the verb suffix -tai for actions, and mixing them up is one of the most telling mistakes learners make.

At its core, hoshii (欲しい) means “I want [noun]” or “[noun] is desired.” It functions as an i-adjective, so it conjugates like kawaii or atsui: negative is hoshikunai, past is hoshikatta, and the polite form pairs it with desu.

Critically, hoshii is a first-person expression. Japanese grammar restricts it to the speaker’s own desires — saying kare wa atarasii kuruma ga hoshii to mean “he wants a new car” sounds odd or even rude in natural speech, because you are presuming to know another person’s inner state. To describe what a third party seems to want, speakers shift to hoshigatte iru (欲しがっている), which reports an observable behavior or inference rather than a direct feeling.

How to Use It

The single most important rule for learners: use hoshii with nouns, and use -tai with verb stems. “I want a coffee” is koohii ga hoshii — never koohii ga nomitai is wrong here wait — actually koohii ga nomitai (“I want to drink coffee”) is grammatically fine too, but koohii ga hoshii (“I want [the] coffee”) treats the coffee as an object of possession. The distinction sharpens when there is no verb: “I want a puppy” can only be koinu ga hoshii, because there is no action involved.

A second productive pattern is ~te hoshii (〜てほしい): attach it to the te-form of a verb to make a polite request, roughly “I’d like you to…” For example, motto yukkuri hanashite hoshii means “I’d like you to speak more slowly.” This transforms hoshii from a simple desire into a soft but direct appeal — a structure that appears constantly in everyday conversation and is well worth mastering early.

Kanji Breakdown

The kanji 欲 (yoku) carries the meaning of desire, greed, or appetite. It combines the radical 欠 (ketsu), depicting a person kneeling with an open mouth — the image of craving or lacking — with the phonetic element 谷 (valley). The compound 欲望 (yokubou) means “lust” or “ambition,” and 欲求 (yokkyuu) means “urge” or “need.” In everyday writing, however, 欲しい is almost always written in hiragana alone (ほしい), particularly in casual and digital contexts, even though the kanji form is grammatically valid.

Example Sentences

Cultural Context

One of the subtler aspects of hoshii is how it reflects Japanese grammar’s deep attention to whose perspective is being expressed. In English, “I want,” “she wants,” and “do you want?” all use the same word with minimal friction. In Japanese, using hoshii to describe another person’s desire — without any hedging — implies you have direct access to their inner feelings, which can come across as presumptuous. The shift to hoshigatte iru (literally, “is showing signs of wanting”) signals that you are observing behavior or drawing an inference, and it is the socially safe choice when speaking about someone else’s desires.

The expression ~te hoshii deserves special attention because it turns hoshii into a surprisingly versatile tool for making requests. Rather than commanding someone directly, a speaker can frame a wish as a personal desire: hayaku kaette kite hoshii (“I want you to come home soon”) conveys urgency while keeping the emotional weight on the speaker’s feelings rather than issuing an order. This indirectness is characteristic of how Japanese speakers often soften requests, and ~te hoshii sits comfortably between a frank demand and an indirect hint.

📚 Learn More