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A grammar question

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alvisspeaking1334
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Posts: 3
Joined: May 15th, 2013 8:19 am

A grammar question

Postby alvisspeaking1334 » July 17th, 2014 12:52 pm

Hi there, fellas! I am Alvis and there's a sentence in my Japanese book that i can't quite make out.

Here goes: 辞書を借りたかったからです。 (the preceding sentence is としてマイクさんのうちにいったんですか。)

Why かりたかった?? I know the stem form is 借りる, but why it conjugates this way in this sentence??
Thank you!

 

mmmason8967
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Joined: January 7th, 2012 12:24 pm

Re: A grammar question

Postby mmmason8967 » July 17th, 2014 7:07 pm

alvisspeaking1334 wrote:Why かりたかった?? I know the stem form is 借りる, but why it conjugates this way in this sentence??

Because it's the past form of 借りたい, which means "I want to borrow...". The ~tai form is an adjective, so the past form is ~たかった (~takatta).

マイケル

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alvisspeaking1334
New in Town
Posts: 3
Joined: May 15th, 2013 8:19 am

Re: A grammar question

Postby alvisspeaking1334 » July 18th, 2014 11:53 am

mmmason8967 wrote:
alvisspeaking1334 wrote:Why かりたかった?? I know the stem form is 借りる, but why it conjugates this way in this sentence??

Because it's the past form of 借りたい, which means "I want to borrow...". The ~tai form is an adjective, so the past form is ~たかった (~takatta).

マイケル


I see! It all makes sense now!! I learned -たい is a suffix added to mean "to want to do something," but I had no idea it makes the word an adjective! Thank you so much for clearing it up!

ありがどうございました、マイケルさん!

community.japanese
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Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: A grammar question

Postby community.japanese » July 19th, 2014 6:46 am

マイケルさん、
どうもありがとうございます。
流石です。

alvisspeaking1334 さん、
よかったですね。

Yuki  由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

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