Everyone constantly wants something. Whether they want a hamburger or a new car, maybe even a pencil. In English we have the word want. We want things from objects or dreams to come true, and you probably want to know how to say in Japanese. Well fortunately this is super easy. Just add たい to the stem of a verb. So たべる becomes たべたい. Lets look at some example sentences so it can make more sense.

えいががみたいです。
I want to see a film.

いつか日本にいきたいです。
I want to go to Japan someday.

ほんをよみたいです。
I want to read a book.

In order to do this successfully there is something to realize about ru-verbs and u-verbs. For ru-verbs just drop the る and add たい. For u-verbs change the last sound to い and add たい. As for irregular verbs する and くる you do both you drop the ru and change the last sound to い. So する transforms to し and くる transforms to き. Here is a chart for example.

So now you can dream away in Japanese.

Note: There is more to this, but for now i will leave it here as I want to post on something else before covering another aspect of this subject. I will link to it once the second part of tai verb conjugations is up. This is the brunt of it though.

Past tense short forms are a bit more tricky than present tense short forms, but not by much. First though be sure that you understand te-forms, and by extension u and ru-verbs.

Past Affirmative

Just like present affirmative was easy since it was just dictionary form. Past tense is easy too. Since you should arleady know te-forms then you know past tense affirmative short form since all you do is change the て/で of te-form to た/だ. Here are some examples.

Past Negative

I am going to be honest, this one is a bit more complicated, only because it requires a bit more thought. Since negative requires a bit more of a process here it is broken into steps.

General Steps

1. Get the dictionary form of the word
2. Short form present tense negative conjugate it
3. Drop the い
4. Add the かった

Steps in Use

1. よむ
2. よまない
3. よまな
4. よまなかった

It is still simple, but just have to think it through a bit more. With some practice you can easily get it down.

Note: I keep mentioning knowing the u and ru-verbs and how to distinguish them. I keep bringing this up because it is very important and makes life easier if you understand.