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Grammar Intermediate TOPIK II · Level 3–4 Intermediate Korean 1 · Unit 2

-고 싶어 하다

-고 싶어 하다: What Someone Else Wants

To want to — framed as observed behaviour when the subject is someone other than the speaker.

Before this, make sure you know: -고 싶다 , -아요 / -어요

How to form it

When Form Example
Third-person assertion stem + -고 싶어 하다 가다 → 동생이 가고 싶어 해요
Past observed desire -고 싶어 했다 가고 싶어 했어요
Negative -고 싶어하지 않다 / 안 -고 싶어하다 가고 싶어하지 않아요
Honorific subject -고 싶어 하시다 할머니가 쉬고 싶어 하세요

-고 싶어 하다 is how you talk about someone else’s wanting.

-고 싶다 already warns you: Korean treats desire as private. This page is the other half — the pattern you reach for once the subject is not I.

저는 한국에 가고 싶어요.           ✅  I want to go
친구가 한국에 가고 싶어요.         ✗  (asserting their inner state)
친구가 한국에 가고 싶어 해요.      ✅  My friend wants to go

우리말샘 lists 싶다 as an auxiliary adjective after -고. The third-person 싶어 하다 switch is classroom grammar built on that: you keep -고 싶-, then add 하다 so the feeling is reported as behaviour, not mind-reading.

Forms

JobShapeExample
Present (others)-고 싶어 하다쉬고 싶어 해요
Past-고 싶어 했다만나고 싶어 했어요
Negative-고 싶어하지 않다가고 싶어하지 않아요
Honorific-고 싶어 하시다쉬고 싶어 하세요
동생이 여행을 가고 싶어 해요.
부모님이 그 사진을 간직하고 싶어 하셨어요.
아이가 안 자고 싶어 해요.

Not for your own I want

Learners sometimes add 하다 to sound more formal about themselves:

저는 쉬고 싶어 해요.   awkward as default ‘I want to rest’
저는 쉬고 싶어요.      ✅

Save -고 싶어 하다 for subjects you are describing from the outside. Your own desire stays on -고 싶다.

Same family as other ‘feelings’

This is not an isolated quirk. Korean often prefers an observed frame for other people’s emotions and preferences — compare how 좋아하다 reports someone else’s liking more comfortably than bare 좋다 as a third-person claim. -고 싶어 하다 is the desire version of that habit.

Meeting / memory talk

This Sejong unit sits with chance meetings and keepsakes — lines where you report what they wanted, not only what you want:

친구가 다시 만나고 싶어 했어요.
엄마가 그 편지를 남기고 싶어 하셨어요.

Ask: am I asserting another person’s desire? If yes, -고 싶어 하다. If you are speaking for yourself, drop back to -고 싶다.

Do not confuse it with

-고 싶다

want to — and why it cannot describe someone else

-겠-

guessing, forecasting, or resolving — not just future

Taught alongside this

On the jabi learning path, this appears in 어제 친구를 우연히 기차역에서 만났어요 (Yesterday, I met a friend at the train station.) — Intermediate Korean 1, Unit 2, on the theme of encounters and memories. These come with it:

-어도 even if — granting the condition and going ahead anyway -잖아(요) you know — and why it sounds accusing when the listener does not

Words used above

Tap the speaker to hear it read aloud by your browser.

-고 싶어 하다-go sipeo hadato want to (about someone else)
원하다wonhadato want (more formal / written)
추억chueokmemory / recollection
우연히uyeonhiby chance
만나다mannadato meet

Quick check

No sign-up, no score saved — just see if it stuck.

1. Which is the natural way to say ‘My friend wants to go’?

2. Can you say 저는 가고 싶어 해요 for ‘I want to go’?

3. What does 하다 add here?

Common questions

Is this just a longer -고 싶다?

Same desire meaning, different speaker access. go-sipda is first-person (and direct questions). This page is the third-person assertion form.

What about questions to someone?

Ask them with bare -고 싶다: 뭐 먹고 싶어요? You are inviting them to report their own state, not asserting it for them.

How do I write the spacing?

Classroom and careful writing usually keep 싶어 하다 as two words after -고. You will also see 싶어하다 written solid in casual text — do not invent *싶여 하다.

Does this work with adjectives?

Same limit as -고 싶다: action verbs. For a state, go through -아/어지다 first — 예뻐지고 싶어 해요 about someone else.