~たい

Means "want"...



何か食べたい

i want to eat something

In affirmative sentences, ~たい almost always refers to one's own wants and desires. (Unless used with ~がる、等)

Therefore, a 私は　almost always redundant. In context, of course, it could be used to differentiate between what /I/ want to do and what /YOU/ want to do, but in a general sentence, it isn't needed.
It can be used as a question, "what do you want to do?", etc, or to express the previously stated desires of others- "He says he wants to go to Disney", or "I think she wants to buy a car", etc, but it always needs a modification. 「彼はディズニーに行きたいです。」 sounds funny.

edit: Sorry, just saw most of that expressed above, missed it the first time.

is this the proper place to ask questions about the topic? anyway, just to confirm, 私は is not absolutely necessary because ~たい can only be used to express one's own desires. so in the advanced notes' sample sentences, 私は could be erased and it'll still be right?

I want to make a few things clear, so here we go :

1. ”たい”　can be used for the third　person under certain situations, for example when the desired action is in the past tense ”三木さんはいっぱいケーキを食べたった。”(Mr. Miki wanted to eat a　lot of cake.). Although I think its better to use "Verb:masu + たがったえいる" for the third person.

2. Some people may confuse ”たい”　as being the english general equivalent of "want", but that is not true. In Japanese there is the auxiliary adjective ”たい” - "want to do something" and the adjective "欲しい" - "want something or want someone to do something for me".

3. People may encounter ”が” being used as the direct object marker rather than ”を”　in some situations when the desire to do something is high(”が”) or low(”を”). Some restrictions apply for this use of ”が”, for example it cannot be used when the verb is in passive form.

This would be it, please report for any inconsistencies or errors.

I got some good info for you. I'll add it in later, but I wanted to explain it first.

3. が/を does *not* relate to a high/low level of desire. What they do are direct stress within the sentence. が forces emphasis to the term before it. If you were to say:
ケーキが食べたい
ケーキを食べたい

the first one is focusing on not that you want to eat, but what you want to eat. It might follow a question such as:
あっ！１２時だから、食べましょう！何がいい？
Here, it's already been stated that eating is going to happen, and your partner is asking you WHAT you want to eat.

Without the が, the stress falls on the verb/action. It might be a good response to the question:
お母さんから１０００円をもらった。何をしたい？
Where you are focusing on the idea that you want to eat (instead of buy a book, or go to the movies).

Let me know if that makes sense to you.
Edit: It also can show stress, but the 'high/low' that you are referring to is usually more with は／が. When が is used to replace を, it's more for the reason that I gave above.

1. Onto the たい／たがる bit. I went over this thoroughly with a Japanese teacher (国語) at my junior high school. The *correct* way to use the past tense is the same way you'd use the present: ~たい for personal desires, and ~たがる for third person (keep in mind that this can be relaxed a bit for more casual situations).

So, in the past, it would (multiple teachers agreed on this) look like
マイケルはピザを食べたがっていた。
and not
マイケルはピザを食べたかった。

The only way you'd get the second sentence is if you're quoting the third person
先生はマイケルが「ピザを食べたい」と言っていた。

I edited this in above, but looks like you already replied ,so I'll rewrite it here:

Edit: It (が) also can show stress, but the 'high/low' that you are referring to is usually more with は／が. When が is used to replace を, it's more for the reason that I gave above.

The second model sentence listed here,

「あなたとあいたいから、一しょにえいがを見ようよ？」
I want to see you, so would you like to see a movie together?

is fine, however, the English translation is a bit off. As I'm sure you know quite well, 「よ」 is used as a direct statement instead of an invitation or question. Perhaps "I want to see you, so let's go see a movie together!" would be a more accurate translation (and, of course, change the "?" to either "!" or "。" at the end of the Japanese sentence).

Another alternative if you want to keep the English translation as is would be to replace the よ with か, or instead of saying　・・・見よう you could use ・・・見ない？

I couldn't find anything further on いかが　so I'd like to ask, If I wanted to ask someone of higher status if there is something they would like to say, would I use いかが [where I'd leave room open for them] or ほしい？How would I go about doing this? I could only create a convenient butchering in my mind. Please help anyone.

＝) This was great help! Thank you!

Thanks for the comments. I'm almost positive (it was awhile ago) that the advanced notes were confirmed with Japanese speakers, but I'd love to improve them if possible.

1. For those (I'm guessing it'd be easiest to ask your gf?) that say たい is fine for the third person, what do they think about the other sentence on there, the おとうとはカレーをたべたがっています。 ?? Does she/they think one is more formal/casual than the other?

Japanese rules often shift and are largely relaxed in casual conversation, so depending on this investigation, it might be better not to put that they're wrong, but simply that one is more formal/casual than the other.

2. I think this might be the same issue. For those that say it isn't rude, what do they think about コーヒーは、いかがですか？ Do they consider those the same formality? I have a suspicion that no one would say コーヒーをのみたいですか to a boss, for example.

3. Same with this one.

I'd love to improve any materials on the site that need it, so your help is very much appreciated. In addition to the material you've already given, see if you can find out what those people think when comparing the 'incorrect' sentences with the ones that follow them.

Thanks a lot for the comment!

Ah, I forgot to mention: those original advanced notes came from a Japanese language teacher. I'd guess that a teacher probably sticks closer to the accepted rules than most, as it can be dangerous for a student to learn the 'everyday' way of saying something without first learning the polite way and, more importantly, when each should be used.

Fixed it! Thanks!

Yea - I have never seen it without the ている.

The reason you wouldn't really ask someone outside your immediate friend circle 食べたい？ or 飲みたい? and so forth is because it sounds (also obviously 9 times out of 10 unintentionally) like you're figuratively dangling it in front of them just outside of their reach. (This came up a few weeks ago in Japanese class and that's pretty much a direct quote from my teacher.) It would be safer to stick with just 食べる？/食べますか or　飲む？/飲みますか？ when you want to ask what people close to you want and for older people, your boss etc. いかがでしょうか？ Having said that, たい？ is still occassionally used in the "rude" way, especially by young people.

If you're with a friend at a restaurant it's not weird to ask 何食べたい？ but it might be better to use 何食べる？ or even 何にする？ The same goes for 何を食べたいですか？ It would still be more polite to ask 何を食べますか？ ...and let's not get into Keigo... :o