～て欲(ほ)しいI want you to

Structure

Verb［て］+ ほしい

Details

About てほしい

As mentioned in our lesson about 'saying that you want something' with がほしい, sometimes ほしい can be used as auxiliary adjective (an adjective that needs to be connected to another word in order to have meaning). In these cases, it will follow the conjunction particle, て. When used this way, てほしい expresses that the speaker 'wants somebody to do something'.

To use てほしい, simply change the verb that you 'want someone to do' into its て-form, and then add ほしい.

Caution

てほしい can also be used to ask questions/explain about what other people want you (or somebody else) to do. Due to this, we will need to be careful when trying to identify who wants who to do what.

手伝(てつだ)ってほしいの？

You want me to help you?
キヨミがタケルに家事(かじ)を手伝(てつだ)ってほしいと言(い)っていた。

Kiyomi told Takeru that she wants him to help with chores.

Synonyms

Examples

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車(くるま)で来(き)てほしかった。

I wanted you to come by car.

コーラを買(か)ってほしいです。

I want you to buy (me) a cola.

一緒(いっしょ)にサッカーをしてほしい。

I want you to play soccer with me.

一緒(いっしょ)に食(た)べに行(い)ってほしいんです。

I want you to go out to eat with me.

毎日(まいにち)お弁当(べんとう)を作(つく)ってほしいです。

I want you to make me a bento every day.

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てほしい – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (7 in total)

matt_in_mito

CrisH:

or if that’s just the most likely intent without any additional context

This is basically right. In most situations, the listener would assume you meant them, assuming there is no additional context. If you were specifically talking about someone else prior to that, then that could change the context.
siditious
I also want to add that it seems that 作ってくれて欲しい seems like the correct response, 作って欲しい would be “I want you to make a bento everyday” and does not clearly indicate the verb of giving.
nekoyama
て・くれる is not used with て・欲しい.

I’ve seen constructions like 作って渡して欲しい to say “I want you to make it and hand it over”, but the English sentences for this grammar point don’t say that.