Phase 5 · 10 min

Everyday sentences

Want, like, have, go, can

Five patterns cover most of daily life. Learn each with one sentence, then swap the nouns.

1. Want: 〜がほしい / 〜たい

mizu ga hoshii desu

I want water.

Noun + がほしい. Casual: 水ほしい.

rāmen ga tabetai desu

I want to eat ramen.

Verb stem + たい. 食べます → 食べたい.

nihon ni sumitai desu

I want to live in Japan.

2. Like: 〜が好き

nihon ryouri ga suki desu

I like Japanese food.

好き takes が, not を. 大好き = love.

karai mono wa amari suki janai desu

I don't really like spicy things.

あまり + negative = not really.

3. Have / exist: あります / います

jikan ga arimasuka

Do you have time?

あります for things, います for people and animals.

neko ga imasu

There is a cat / I have a cat.

eki no chikaku ni konbini ga arimasu

There is a convenience store near the station.

Place に Thing が あります.

4. Go / come / return

ashita, oosaka ni ikimasu

Tomorrow I'm going to Osaka.

nanji ni kaerimasuka

What time will you go home?

5. Can: 〜ことができます / potential form

nihongo ga sukoshi hanasemasu

I can speak a little Japanese.

話す → 話せる (potential). Easier: 話すことができます.

kanji ga yomemasen

I can't read kanji.

اردو

From Urdu

たい is Urdu چاہتا ہوں glued to the verb: کھانا چاہتا ہوں = 食べたい. 好き takes が the way پسند takes مجھے … پسند ہے (the liked thing is the grammatical subject in both). あります/います is the ہے/ہیں of existence: بلی ہے = 猫がいます.

ไทย

From Thai

ほしい ≈ อยากได้, 〜たい ≈ อยาก + verb. 好き ≈ ชอบ. あります ≈ มี. Potential form ≈ verb + ได้ (พูดได้ = 話せます). Thai puts these after or before the verb; Japanese fuses them into the verb ending.

Check yourself

1 / 6

13 cards

Add them to spaced repetition

Cards in this lesson (13)

〜ga hoshii desu

I want (a thing)

〜tai desu

I want to (verb)

tabetai

want to eat

〜ga suki desu

I like …

daisuki

love / really like

amari〜nai

not really …

arimasu

there is / I have (things)

imasu

there is / I have (people, animals)

ikimasu

to go

kaerimasu

to go home

hanasemasu

can speak

yomemasen

can't read

chikaku

near

Next lesson

Asking and getting by

Go