Wish Making in Japanese
Japanese Wish making through Japanese grammar
When you wish upon a star, do you get what you want? This lens will show you how to form Japanese expressions that indicate what you wish. Learn the grammar construction below to make your own wonderfully unique sentences and then test them out on all your Japanese friends. Ganbatte ne!
Japanese Wish Making
How to make wishes in Japanese
Japanese Grammar Lesson #98
How to Make Wishes in Japanese
or How to say , "If I could only. . . " in Japanese.
Base IV + ba ii no ni or
A Japanese verb in its conditional state + ii no ni
To wish (something), (I wish I could verb, despite not being able to although it is so cool.)
To make sentences that will express your wishes or longing for something put a Japanese verb into its conditional state and add ii noni. I always took noni as meaning, "In spite of" or "Despite something." "ii" is the word for good, so that yoi could be used or even other adjectives of different shapes and sizes.
For this construction, any Japanese verb in its condtional form conditional will suffice for this lesson's construction. The use of nara is also acceptable. So that you could have
-noun nara ii noni etc.
The Japanese conditional being either a verb in base IV
iku ? ik(e) (baseIV) + ba = ikeba or
if (I) go or verb in base TA + RA, so that
iku in base ta =itta
itta + ra or ittara
The verb iku in base IV is iko^
- add the conditional extendor ba to the base so that ike+ba=ikeba
Ikeba ii no ni -
It would have been cool if I could have went, or I wish I could have gone. Literally this phrase means something more like Despite it being good, if I go.
In the same way you may say it this way, iku in base TA is itta
- add ra to form the conditional. So that
itta + ra = ittara
- than add ii no ni to complete the phrase that you wish would happen.
Below are some examples to get you going. Make your own interesting sentences. Make questions out of them. Use them in Japan on real Japanese people to test them out and make sure they work. You never know what you might be able to say with your new grammar construction for making wishes in Japanese.
Examples
1. Yasukattara ii noni - I sure hope it is cheap, (lit. if it were cheap it would be good despite the fact that its probably not.)
2. Ittara ii noni or ikeba ii noni or - I wish I could go
3. Kirei dattara or kirei nara ii noni or - If she were cute that would be cool, or I hope she is pretty. (lit. Despite it being good if (she) is pretty.)
4. Shicchan ga ittara ii noni - it would be cool if shi chan (a girl whose name starts with Shi)
5. Mite mireba ii noni. - I wish you would go check it out. or It would be cool if you could go look at it.
6. Okane mochi nara ii noni - "I wish I were rich", or "If only I had a lot of money how nice things would be." etc.
As always,
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki
