I want to: -고 싶어요

Three wishes, one ending

집에 가고 싶어요 — I want to go home. 밥을 먹고 싶어요 — I want to eat. 쉬고 싶어요 — I want to rest.

Each sentence ends in 고 싶어요, and what stands in front of 고 is the bare verb: 가, 먹, 쉬. The rest of the sentence is untouched. The place still has 에 and the object still has 을, exactly as in 집에 가요 and 밥을 먹어요.

싶어요 is pronounced [시퍼요]; 먹고 is [먹꼬].

Stem + 고 싶어요

The pattern is written -고 싶어요, “want to”. Take the dictionary form, remove 다, and add it: 가다 → 가고 싶어요, 먹다 → 먹고 싶어요. There is no vowel to choose and it makes no difference whether the stem ends in a vowel or a consonant. It is the same 고 you used for “and”.

The one trap is starting from the 해요 form. Go back to the stem: 마셔요 is 마시다, so 커피를 마시고 싶어요; 봐요 is 보다, so 영화를 보고 싶어요; 해요 gives 하고 싶어요.

Things people want to do

Three nouns: 고향 hometown, 콘서트 concert, 사진 photo. Three verbs: 찍어요 (찍다) take a photo, as in 사진을 찍어요; 만들어요 (만들다) make; 써요 (쓰다) write, and also “use”.

As wishes they go back to the stem: 사진을 찍고 싶어요, 김밥을 만들고 싶어요. Watch 써요: its stem is 쓰, so the wish is 쓰고 싶어요. You saw the same thing with 바빠요, whose dictionary form is 바쁘다.

Your wish, or the listener’s

뭐 먹고 싶어요? — what do you want to eat? 비빔밥을 먹고 싶어요 — I want to eat bibimbap.

Neither sentence names a person. As a question, -고 싶어요 asks about the listener’s wish; as a statement, it gives the speaker’s own. That is all it does. Korean does not use it as it stands to report what a third person wants (“he wants to …” needs a different form), so keep it for “I” and “you”.

Wanted to: 싶었어요

콘서트에 가고 싶어요 — I want to go to a concert. 어제 콘서트에 가고 싶었어요 — I wanted to go to the concert yesterday.

Only the last word changes. 싶어요 comes from 싶다, and its past is 싶었어요, with the same 었 as 먹었어요. The verb in front of 고 stays exactly as it was: the past is marked once, at the end of the sentence.

Don’t want to

안 가고 싶어요 — I don’t want to go. 안 goes in front of the verb, as it always does.

You will also hear a longer version: 가고 싶지 않아요. It means the same, and for now it is enough to recognise it. Neither of them is 못 가요. That says you cannot go, which is a different thing from not wanting to.

싶지 않아요 is pronounced [십찌 아나요].