Ssh, don’t tell anyone but… you can use 「を」 with the 「たい」 form
I remember reading or hearing a long time ago that you can’t use the object particle 「を」 with the 「たい」 form of the verb. (If you are unfamiliar with the 「たい」 form, click here.) Now that’s complete rubbish but I can see where the logic came from. When a verb is converted to the 「たい」 form, it becomes an adjective describing that somebody or something wants to do the verb. Grammatically, it conjugates and works just like any other adjective. Subsequently, because the object particle describes the object of an action, it doesn’t make any sense to have an adjective have a direct object, ie “Bob big apple”. So in conclusion, using the object particle with the 「たい」 form is grammatically incorrect because the 「たい」 form is an adjective. You should use 「が」 or sometimes 「は」. So all was well, and we could flog students for making that mistake in peace.
But reality tells a different story. Maybe it was modern Western influence on the language or maybe some crazy grammar-fanatic educators forgot to check reality when creating the rule. I’m not an expert on the history of Japanese linguistics so I don’t really know. But whatever the case, all I know is that people today use the 「を」 particle with the 「たい」 form all the time.
I can already see the next question about to come out of your mouth. You want to know what the difference is between using 「を」 and something else right? Well, I’m going to see if anybody is still reading this blog by letting you peeps try to figure it out in the comments. I’ll write the answer in an another post.
Here are some example sentences for you to chew on.
１） 続きを読みたい。
２） 続きが読みたい。
３） 続きは読みたい。
４） どうでもいい。
- 
February 17th, 2007 at 1:43 am
Heh, I’ve never heard of that rule.
As far as I’m concerned, i-”adjectives” are just verbs anyway, so it never bothered me.
February 17th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
As far as I can guess …
Aren’t 1 and 3 essentially the same, while 2 means “The continuation wants to read”?
February 18th, 2007 at 3:32 am
I give up:(
February 18th, 2007 at 5:17 am
Well, you just destroyed my one way of differentiating between 「が」 and 「を」. Thanks.
February 18th, 2007 at 5:36 am
My textbook said you could use both and I’ve asked different japanese people what the difference is.
The only concrete answer i got is that を makes it more like you _really_ want to do the thing you’re talking about.
But as usual different people said different things so I have no idea.
February 19th, 2007 at 12:06 am
I’m being obtuse I know but :-
１） 続きを読みたい。
２） 続きが読みたい。
３） 続きは読みたい。
What’s the difference !!!!
February 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Interesting. I don’t remember learning that, but there are a lot of gaps in my Japanese education for sure.
Compare:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%E4%BD%95%E3%82%92%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%B9%E3%81%9F%E3%81%84&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%E4%BD%95%E3%81%8C%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%B9%E3%81%9F%E3%81%84&btnG=Search
or
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%82%92%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%9F%E3%81%84&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%81%8C%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%9F%E3%81%84&btnG=Search
which is:
何を食べたい vs. 何が食べたい
and
映画を見たい vs. 映画が見たい
however you interpret those results, they are clearly both common forms.
and lastly:
映画を見に行きたい vs. 映画が見に行きたい
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%82%92%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%AB%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%8D%E3%81%9F%E3%81%84&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E3%81%8C%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%AB%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%8D%E3%81%9F%E3%81%84&btnG=Search
February 19th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
There was a rule? I’ve never been told that I couldn’t use ‘を’ with the ‘たい’ form.
Having said that, I’m not seeing the differences between examples 1-3. 3 seems to be a more emphatic form of 1 , but that’s all I can think of. :(
February 20th, 2007 at 5:03 am
It’s funny, I noticed the exact same thing while I was living in Japan… couldn’t tell you the difference in usage though.
February 20th, 2007 at 8:05 am
I’m basing this completely on intuition, but…
続きを読みたい is more emphatic than 続きが読みたい。
続きは読みたい is more like いいかげんにして。他の話題は興味がないけど、（この話題の）続きは興味があって読みたい。
Am I close?
February 20th, 2007 at 8:42 am
I guess, in this context「を」means ‘really-really want that thing’,「が」is just standard and neutral and「は」means ‘want THAT as opposed to something else’.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Ok… I’m not sure if I remember this correctly but here goes…
Lets use 食べたい
りんごを食べたい
りんごが食べたい
If I remember right… using を emphasises the fact that you want to eat and using が emphasises that you want to eat specifically an apple. (or is that the other way around)
and I’ve never seen は used… but I guess it would be for contrasting/comparing.
りんごは食べたいけど、ミカンは食べたくない
hope I got that right… if not, 教えてください
February 20th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Tae Kim, do you have a girlfriend?
February 21st, 2007 at 9:07 pm
That’s a fairly impressive non sequitur!
December 29th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Even by that logic, doesn’t the negative (-ない) ending of verbs also conjugate like an adjective? By extension of that argument, you wouldn’t be able to use を with negative verbs either. I wonder where that originated.
Great blog, I’m really enjoying it :) I only just stumbled across it today, but I’ve been devouring it.