Japanese Learning: Expressions of Desire for Possession using the I-adjective “Hoshii”; Watashi wa [A] ga Hoshii desu.

Take a look at an example of today’s construction;

example : Watashi wa Kanojo ga Hoshii desu. (I want a girlfriend.)

Note that “Kanojo” in Japanese usually means “a girlfriend”. Only when you learn grammar of a language, or translate sentences of foreign language, “Kanojo” means “she”. Anyway, the example is a “wa-ga construction”. If a teacher does not explain properly “wa-ga construction”, it could result in huge damage on Japanese learners because “wa-ga construction” may make a learner erroneously think that the particle “-ga” is for an object. The most important basic of Japanese is that the particle “-ga” is for a subject, while the particle “-o” for an object.

In an English sentence “I want a girlfriend”, “a girlfriend” is an object of the transitive verb “want”. But in the Japanese sentence “Watashi wa Kanojo ga Hoshii desu.” DO NOT think that “Kanojo(a girlfriend)” is an object, NOR think that “-ga” is the particle for the object.

Rather, think “Kanojo ga” is the subject of the predicate “Hoshii desu”. “Hoshii” is an I-adjective, and means someone wants something. Since “Kanojo” is what you want, it can be the subject of “Hoshii”. It may seem wrong from the context, because “Watashi (I)” is the subject of the sentence. So, I recommend you thinking as shown below;

– Watashi wa = the topic of the sentence

– Kanojo ga = the subject of “Hoshii”

– Hoshii desu = the predicate

It is fact that there are “wa-ga constructions” in Japanese. And sometimes they seem to be a “double subject sentence”. Be careful about “wa-ga construction” sentences, and not be confused with normal transitive verb sentences that use the particle “-o” for the object:

example of “wa-ga construction”;

– Watashi wa Kamera ga Hoshii desu. (I want a camera.)

example of “transitive verb sentence”;

– Watashi wa Kamera o Kaimasu. (I (am going to) buy a camera.)

Perhaps it is difficult to understand the lengthy explanation above. Then simply think that the I-adjective “Hoshii” usually becomes “wa-ga construction”. Practice and remember the following conversation;

A : Satou-san wa Nani ga Hoshii desuka. (Sato-san, what do you want?)

B : Watashi wa Atarashii Sumaho ga Hoshii desu. (I want a brand-new smartphone.)

This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 on Section 13 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”