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Learning through examples in manga

Wanting to burn fliers with 〜たい

Grammar Explanation: Wanting to do with 〜たい

Manga panel from ご注文はうさぎですか？ showing example of Wanting to burn fliers with 〜たい.
ご注文はうさぎですか？ » Volume 1 » Page 8

Seeing Syaro handing out advertisement fliers. When Syaro says she can’t go home until she’s done with them, Cocoa likens her to the fabled little match girl.

ココア:
「そんなにチラシ燃(も)やしたかった？」
“Did you really want to burn the fliers that badly?”
「マッチならあるよ」
“I’ve got some matches.”
シャロ:
「そういう意味(いみ)じゃない」
“That’s not what I meant.”

Key Points

  1. 燃(も)やしたかった = “wanted to burn”

    • 燃(も)やしたかった is the past form of 燃(も)やしたい: “wanted to burn”.

    • Cocoa is asking whether Syaro really had that desire, not saying Cocoa wanted to burn the fliers herself.

  2. Verb stem + たい

    • The verb is 燃(も)やす (“to burn something”), and its stem is 燃(も)やし.

    • Add たい to the stem for “want to burn”, then change たい to past たかった for “wanted to burn”.

See Also