# Desiderative mood

In linguistics, a desiderative (abbreviated DESI or DES) form is one that has the meaning of "wanting to X". Desiderative forms are often verbs, derived from a more basic verb through a process of morphological derivation. Desiderative mood is a kind of volitive mood.

## Sanskrit

In Sanskrit, the desiderative is formed through the suffixing of /sa/ and the prefixing of a reduplicative syllable, consisting of the first consonant of the root (sometimes modified) and a vowel, usually /i/ but /u/ if the root has an /u/ in it. Changes to the root vowel sometimes happen, as well. The acute accent, which indicates high pitch in Vedic, is usually placed at the first vowel.
For example:
| Base form | Meaning | Desiderative | Meaning |
| nayati | "he leads" | nínīṣati | "he wants to lead" |
| pibati | "he drinks" | pípāsati | "he wants to drink" |
| jīvati | "he lives" | jíjīviṣati | "he wants to live" |

## Meadow Mari

In Meadow Mari, the desiderative mood is marked by the suffix -не -ne.

### Positive present

Conjugation of the present desiderative positive :
| Person | 1st Dec. pos. | 2nd Dec. pos. |
| 1st Singular | лекнем$^2$ (I want to go) | мондынем (I want to forget) |
| 2nd Singular | лекнет$^2$ (You want to go) | мондынет (You want to forget) |
| 3rd Singular | лекнеже$^2$ (He/she/it wants to go) | мондынеже (He/she/it wants to forget) |
| 1st Plural | лекнена$^2$ (We want to go) | мондынена (We want to forget) |
| 2nd Plural | лекнеда$^2$ (You want to go) | мондынеда (You want to forget) |
| 3rd Plural | лекнешт$^2$ (They want to go) | мондынешт (They want to forget) |

### Negative present

Conjugation of the present desiderative negative :
| Person | 1st Dec. neg. | 2nd Dec. neg. |
| 1st Singular | ынем лек$^2$ (I don't want to go) | ынем мондо$^1$ (I don't want to forget) |
| 2nd Singular | ынет лек$^2$ (You don't want to go) | ынет мондо$^1$ (You don't want to forget) |
| 3rd Singular | ынеже лек$^2$ (He/she/it doesn't want to go) | ынеже мондо$^1$ (He/she/it doesn't want to forget) |
| 1st Plural | ынена лек$^2$ (We don't want to go) | ынена мондо$^1$ (We don't want to forget) |
| 2nd Plural | ынеда лек$^2$ (You don't want to go) | ынеда мондо$^1$ (You don't want to forget) |
| 3rd Plural | ынешт лек$^2$ (They don't want to go) | ынешт мондо$^1$ (They don't want to forget) |

## Japanese

In Japanese, the desiderative takes two main forms: -tai (-たい) and -tagaru (-たがる). Both forms conjugate for tense and positivity, but in different ways: with the -tai ending, the verb becomes an -i adjective, or a conjugable adjective, while the ending -tagaru (-tai + -garu suffix) creates a godan/yodan verb. Though there are other, compound forms to demonstrate wanting, these two alone are demonstrated because they are inflections of the main verb. These two forms are plain/informal in nature, and can be elevated to the normal-polite and other levels through normal methods.
-tai is an absolute statement of desire, whereas -tagaru indicates the appearance of desire. Generally, one does not say things such as 太郎さんが食べたい 'Tarō wants to eat' because one cannot read Tarō's thoughts; instead, one says 太郎さんが食べたがる 'it appears that Tarō wants to eat.'

### Godan Verbs

| | | -たい, -tai | -たがる, -tagaru | Meaning |
| Non-past | Positive | 書きたい, kakitai | 書きたがる, kakitagaru | 'want(s) to write' |
| Non-past | Negative | 書きたくない, kakitakunai | 書きたがらない, kakitagaranai | 'don't/doesn't want to write' |
| Past | Positive | 書きたかった, kakitakatta | 書きたがった, kakitagatta | 'wanted to write' |
| Past | Negative | 書きたくなかった, kakitakunakatta | 書きたがらなかった, kakitagaranakatta | 'didn't want to write' |

### Ichidan Verbs

| | | -たい, -tai | -たがる, -tagaru | Meaning |
| Non-past | Positive | 食べたい, tabetai | 食べたがる, tabetagaru | 'wants to eat' |
| Non-past | Negative | 食べたくない, tabetakunai | 食べたがらない, tabetagaranai | 'don't/doesn't want to eat' |
| Past | Positive | 食べたかった, tabetakatta | 食べたがった, tabetagatta | 'wanted to eat' |
| Past | Negative | 食べたくなかった, tabetakunakatta | 食べたがらなかった, tabetagaranakatta | 'didn't want to eat' |

## Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European likely had a desiderative. In some daughter languages like Albanian, Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic and possibly Celtic, it acquired the meaning of a future tense.