Japanese Conversation: What do you want?

Today’s lesson will help you to get a topic to converse with your friend about what you want. Happy learning!

What do you want?

A: いま、なにがほしいですか？
B: ミルクセーキとホットケーキがほしいです。

A: What do you want now?
B: I want milkshake and hotcakes.

A: そうですか? わたしもホットケーキをたべたいですよ! いっしょにたべましょう
B: うわーいきましょう！

A: Is that so? I also want some hotcakes. Let’s eat together!
B: Uwaa! Let’s go!

Important Points

Below are some points you might need to know~

About ほしい
Although you can use ほしい (hoshii) to express what you want. You cannot use it to express what other people want. You can never know what other people really want so it’s impolite to talk as if you know about it. When you want to talk about other people, you need to use another word. We won’t share it for now, but just keep in mind that you can only use this word to talk about yourself or to ask what other people might want.

そうですか
そうです (sou desu) is often used as a response to other people’s talking. Without ending particle か (ka) or ね (ne), it has a nuance which means “I see”. そうですか (sou desu ka) often translated as “Is that so?” or “Really?”. While そうですね often translated as “Right?” or “Isn’t it?”.

…ましょう
Japanese conjugates their verbs to give additional meaning. Verbs conjugated with ましょう (mashou) have a nuance to ask other people to also do the action. So it’s often translated as “Let’s”.

うわー
The stripe (ー) in this word means that the last kana sound is prolonged. So it shall be read as “Uwaaa~”