Japanese Grammar – I want to look this word up in the dictionary. 🇯🇵

この ことば を じしょ で（しらべる）____です。

1. Explanation of the sentence structure:

The sentence "この ことば を じしょ で (しらべる) ____ です。" translates to "I want to look this word up in the dictionary." in English.

2. The verb "しらべる" (shiraberu):

"しらべる" means "to look up" or "to investigate." It is a godan (u-) verb, and to express the desire to do something (to want to do something), the verb needs to be converted to its -tai form.

3. The -tai form:

The -tai form of a verb in Japanese is used to express the speaker's desire to do that action. To form the -tai form, you:

– Take the stem of the verb (remove the る ending for ichidan (ru-) verbs, or modify appropriately for godan (u-) verbs)
– Add たい (tai)

Since "しらべる" is an ichidan verb, you remove the "る" ending and add "たい":

しらべる (shiraberu) -> しらべたい (shirabetai)

4. Putting it all together:

The part of the sentence in parentheses is "(しらべる)", which needs to be in the -tai form to match the context of expressing a desire. Thus, it changes to "しらべたい".

5. Result:

The complete sentence becomes:
この ことば を じしょ で しらべたい です。
Kono kotoba o jisho de shirabetai desu.

This sentence directly translates to "I want to look this word up in the dictionary."

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