Lesson 14: 고 싶어요

In this lesson, you will learn how to use 고 싶어요 [go si-peo-yo] to say things like “What do you want to do?“, “I want to watch a movie“, “What do you want to eat?“, “I want to eat pizza“.

Lesson 14: 고 싶어요

고 싶어요 can be attached to action verbs to express that you want to do that action. There are no special conjugation rules with this ending, so it is super easy to use. All you need to do is remove 다 from an action verb so you are left with the verb stem, and then add 고 싶어요. Let’s look at some examples:

먹다 [meok-da] = to eat
먹고 싶어요 [meok-go si-peo-yo] = want to eat
치킨 먹고 싶어요. [chi-kin meok-go si-peo-yo] = I want to eat chicken.

가다 [ga-da] = to go
가고 싶어요 [ga-go si-peo-yo] = want to go
한국에 가고 싶어요 [han-gu-ge ga-go si-peo-yo] = I want to go to Korea.

보다 [bo-da] = to see/watch
보고 싶어요 [bo-go si-peo-yo] = want to see/watch
영화 보고 싶어요. [yeong-hwa bo-go si-peo-yo] = I want to watch a movie.

Making Questions

It is really easy to make questions with 고 싶어요 to ask questions such as “What do you want to do?“, “What do you want to eat?“, etc. To do so, you need to add the word 뭐 [mwo] (what)* at the start of the sentence and raise your intonation at the end of the sentence to show it is a question. Here are some examples:

뭐 하고 싶어요? [mweo ha-go-si-peo-yo?] = What do you want to do?
뭐 먹고 싶어요? [mweo meok-go-si-peo-yo?] = What do you want to eat?
뭐 보고 싶어요? [mweo bo-go-si-peo-yo?] = What do you want to watch?

*Please note that 뭐 should never be followed by a noun. So, if you are trying to say ‘what’ in Korean followed by a noun, a different word is used. This will be taught in a future lesson.

Example Dialogues

뭐 마시고 싶어요? [mwo ma-si-go si-peo-yo] = What do you want to drink?
커피 마시고 싶어요. [keo-pi ma-si-go si-peo-yo] = I want to drink coffee.

내일 뭐 하고 싶어요? [nae-il mwo ha-go si-peo-yo] = What do you want to do tomorrow?
쇼핑하고 싶어요. [syo-ping-ha-go si-peo-yo] = I want to go shopping.

오늘 저녁에 뭐 먹고 싶어요? [o-neul jeo-nyeo-ge mwo meok-go si-peo-yo] = What do you want to eat this evening?
피자 먹고 싶어요. [pi-ja meok-go si-peo-yo] = I want to eat pizza.

Important!

When you are talking about someone in the third person (i.e. he/she wants to do (something)) then a different expression is used. 고 싶어 해요 [go si-peo hae-yo] is attached and NOT 고 싶어요 . Here is an example:

친구는 영화 보고 싶어 해요. = My friend wants to watch a movie. (NOT 보고 싶어요.)