Let’s learn Japanese with Bunta’s quote from Initial D.
CONTENTS
Video
Bunta’s Quote
Japanese: ちょっとタバコを吸いたくなった。
Romaji: chotto tabako o suitakunatta.
English: I feel like a smoke.
Analysis
ちょっと: Many people know ちょっと means “a little bit” such as 日本語がちょっと話せる meaning “I can speak a little Japanese“. But this ちょっと is used to express the speaker does something casually without much thought or doesn’t want to bother explaining something. There is no direct English translation for that but maybe you can express it with “just”.
タバコ means “cigarette”. The particle を is used to indicate the direct object of the following verb. 吸い is a stem of the masu-form, 吸います usually used with タバコ to mean “to smoke”.
たくなった is the past tense of たくなる. たく comes from たい meaning ”to want to do something” and なる means “to become” or “to reach a certain state”. It follows a stem of a verb masu-form and it means “to become or to start wanting to do something“. So Bunta let go of the steering wheel because he just started wanting to smoke.
Examples
ちょっと (used to express the speaker does something casually without much thought/doesn’t want to bother explaining something)
牛乳がなかったからちょっと買ってくる。
gyūnyū ga nakatta kara chotto kattekuru.
I found that there was no milk so I’ll just go grab it.
ちょっと用事があるので、失礼します。
chotto yōji ga aru no de, shiturei shimasu.
I just have something to do, so please excuse me.
「お前はもう死んでいる！」…ちょっと言ってみたかっただけ。
“omae wa mō shindeiru!” … chotto itte mitakatta dake.
“You are already dead!” … I just wanted to say it.
Stem of Masu-Form + たくなる (to become/start wanting to do something)
本屋に行くとトイレに行きたくなる。
hon’ya ni iku to toire ni ikitaku naru.
When I go to a bookstore, I feel like going to the toilet (become wanting to go to the toilet).
急に友達に会いたくなった。
kyū ni tomodachi ni aitaku natta.
I suddenly felt like seeing friends.
交通事故にあって、二度と運転をしたくなくなった.
kōtsūjiko ni atte, nido to unten o shitakunaku natta.
I had a car accident which made me not want to drive ever again.
ラーメンが食べたい or ラーメンを食べたい??? – It depends on what you want to emphasise.
- If you want to emphasise that RAMEN is something that you want to eat – ラーメンが食べたい
- If you want to emphasise the action “TO EAT ramen” – ラーメンを食べたい
So when you crave some specific food like ramen, ラーメンが食べたい is commonly used because you don’t want anything else but ramen. But they are mostly interchangeable.
However, you can only use を when the action and object are connected strongly (fixed phrases). For example:
- ✔︎お金を貯めたい ✖︎お金が貯めたい (to save money)
- ✔︎お金を借りたい ✖︎お金が借りたい (to borrow money)
- ✔︎仕事を辞めたい ✖︎仕事が辞めたい (to quit a job)
- ✔︎約束を守りたい ✖︎約束が守りたい (to keep a promise)
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