Likes, wants and abilities

Everything in this lesson runs on one idea, and if you take only that away you will still be ahead of most beginners. When Japanese says you like something, want something or can do something, the thing is not the object of a verb. It is the subject of a description, and it takes が. English hides this because it uses ordinary transitive verbs: "I like coffee", "I want water". Japanese says something closer to "as for me, coffee is pleasing". Get が in place and these patterns are easy. Reach for を and you will sound wrong every single time.

Liking: 好すき

好すき is a な adjective, not a verb, which is why it behaves the way it does. The thing liked takes が, and the person doing the liking, if you name them at all, takes は.

コーヒーが好すきです koohii ga suki desu I like coffee

私わたしは音楽おんがくが好すきです watashi wa ongaku ga suki desu I like music

妹いもうとは犬いぬが好すきじゃありません imouto wa inu ga suki ja arimasen My younger sister does not like dogs

Because it is a な adjective it takes な in front of a noun, and it makes its negative and past exactly like every other な adjective you have met.

好すきな食たべ物ものは何なんですか suki na tabemono wa nan desu ka What food do you like

The family runs from 大好だいすき, love, through 好すき, down to 嫌きらい, dislike, and 大嫌だいきらい, hate. 嫌きらい looks like an い adjective and is not: it is な, and its negative is 嫌きらいじゃありません.

納豆なっとうが大嫌だいきらいです nattou ga daikirai desu I hate natto

上手じょうず, good at, and 下手へた, bad at, work identically, with が on the skill.

姉あねは料理りょうりが上手じょうずです ane wa ryouri ga jouzu desu My older sister is good at cooking

Wanting a thing: ほしい

欲ほしい, usually written ほしい, is an い adjective meaning wanted. Again the thing takes が.

新あたらしいパソコンがほしいです atarashii pasokon ga hoshii desu I want a new computer

時間じかんがほしいです jikan ga hoshii desu I want time

何なにがほしいですか nani ga hoshii desu ka What do you want

Being an い adjective, it makes its negative by swapping い for くない: ほしくないです, I do not want it.

There is a restriction that catches people out. ほしい describes an inner feeling, and Japanese does not let you assert somebody else's inner feelings flatly. So ほしいです is about you, and ほしいですか asks about the listener. For a third person you need a hedge, and the easy one you already own is ています attached to ほしがります.

弟おとうとは自転車じてんしゃをほしがっています otouto wa jitensha o hoshigatte imasu My younger brother wants a bicycle

Note that this version takes を, because ほしがります really is a verb. That is the exception that proves how consistent the rest of the system is.

Wanting to do: たい

To say you want to do something, take the stem, the part left when ます comes off, and add たい. The result is an い adjective, so it conjugates like one.

日本にほんに行いきたいです nihon ni ikitai desu I want to go to Japan

何なにか食たべたいです nanika tabetai desu I want to eat something

今日きょうは働はたらきたくないです kyou wa hatarakitaku nai desu I do not want to work today

The object of a たい sentence may take either を or が, and both are correct. が pulls the focus onto the thing itself and is the slightly older, more emphatic choice; を keeps the ordinary feel of the verb. 水みずが飲のみたいです and 水みずを飲のみたいです both mean you want a drink of water. The same third-person restriction applies, and the same fix: たがっています.

Being able to: できます

できます means can do, and the ability takes が.

日本語にほんごが少すこしできます nihongo ga sukoshi dekimasu I can speak a little Japanese

運転うんてんができますか unten ga dekimasu ka Can you drive

For a whole action rather than a skill noun, use the dictionary form of the verb plus ことができます. The dictionary form is the shape you look a verb up under, 読よむ for 読よみます and 食たべる for 食たべます, and こと turns that action into a thing you can be able to do.

漢字かんじを読よむことができます kanji o yomu koto ga dekimasu I can read kanji

全然ぜんぜんできません zenzen dekimasen I cannot do it at all

全然ぜんぜん, at all, always pairs with a negative, in the same way 何なにも did last lesson.

Vocabulary

Where you have got to

Sixteen lessons ago you could not read a syllable. You can now write both kana, sound out a hundred kanji with their readings, and say what something is, what it is like, what you did, where you went, what you are doing right now, what is where, and what you like, want and can do. That is the ground the N5 level covers, and more importantly it is enough to hold a slow, real conversation with a patient speaker.

What is missing is not more grammar so much as more room. Every pattern here has a plain, casual counterpart used between friends, and a politer register used with customers and superiors, and moving between the three is what makes speech sound natural rather than textbook. The connectives that join sentences into paragraphs are next, as is the far larger stock of kanji that turns reading from decoding into reading. Keep meeting the language in things made for people rather than for learners, and let the patterns you have here carry you.