# 要 / 想



## Setwale_Charm

What is the semantic difference between these two words [要 / 想] meaning "to want"?


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## La_Mél

Ok so I think 要 is stronger than 想. There are 2 main difference to use these two verbs.
- In a negative sentence, you have to use 不想 (like you don't want to make something by yourself). I'm not sure of this rule because I often see 不要 used, so I'm quite confused on this point...(I know, grammar books suck a lot)
- If you want to say "To want" with 想, the action has to have the same subject:
我想学中文 or 我要学中文 
But 我要你学中文 and not 我想你学中文 (this sentence is incorrect, right ?)

I'm sure that a native speaker would help you better than I did !


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## univerio

要 indicates a stronger desire. An analogy for this in English would be the difference between &quot;want&quot; and &quot;wish.&quot;  In a negative construction, 不想 indicates a desire to not do something, while 不要 not only does that, but it also indicates a desire to do something else instead of that.


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## AVim

To be concise and easy, you can think in this tricky way:
要 just means 'want' 
想 only means 'think'

that's all!

If there's a '想' which means 'want', it's '想(要)' actually.

Example:
我想学中文 == 我想*要*学中文 => I *think* that I *want* to learn Chinese.


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## xiaolijie

La_Mél said:


> Ok so I think 要 is stronger than 想. There are 2 main difference to use these two verbs.
> - In a negative sentence, you have to use 不想 (like you don't want to make something by yourself). I'm not sure of this rule because I often see 不要 used, so I'm quite confused on this point...(I know, grammar books suck a lot)
> - If you want to say "To want" with 想, the action has to have the same subject:
> 我想学中文 or 我要学中文
> But 我要你学中文 and not 我想你学中文 (this sentence is incorrect, right ?)


 
I think you're right, La_Mél, and I only want to clarify some points where you have doubts:

The negative of 要 (as in 我要去 /I want to go) is as you said, 不想 (as in 我不想去 / I don't want to go). However, you will see 不要 used very often, but is often in the sense of "别/ Don't" :
Don't push!
不要拥挤！
Don't hurry.
不要着忙


> But 我要你学中文 and not 我想你学中文 (this sentence is incorrect, right ?)


Yes!


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## AVim

xiaolijie said:


> Don't hurry.
> 不要着忙



Hmm... sounds wired. Do you mean '不要着急?'


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## xiaolijie

Yes, I think 不要着急 is more frequently heard. I only wanted to illustrate the point and didn't think enough about the examples (I've seen something like this though: 不要着忙，来得及！).


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## AVim

xiaolijie said:


> Yes, I think 不要着急 is more frequently heard. I only wanted to illustrate the point and didn't think enough about the examples (I've seen something like this though: 不要着忙，来得及！).



Okok, I'm not intend to be picky, and you know my english is not good. If there's something made you feel uncomfortable, I'll be very sorry. Anyway, your Chinese is good, indeed!

The interesting stuff is I've never heard '不要着忙',  maybe some local dialects? Where did you hear of?

What about '别' as you mentioned?  i.e. 别忙，来得及 .


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## xiaolijie

Hi AVim,
Please feel free to point out anything sounding not quite natural to you, as I'm just learning. Your correction will always be appreciated.

As for the word 着忙 (zhao2mang2), curiously I can find it in all 4 dictionaries I've just tried. I therefore don't think it's dialectal (but a little formal and old fashion, perhaps?) and I hope other native speakers will confirm this.

Cheers,


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## coconutpalm

Yes, 着忙 is quite out-dated, but you can read it in many novels in Ming, Qing Dynasties, and Min Guo.
You may say 别急/忙, or 不要急.
If you say 不要急very quickly, it may be heard as 别急
Somehow, 不要忙sounds a little weird to my ear, so I don't recommend it.


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## palomnik

Case in point:  I've heard it said that 别 was originally an abbreviation of 不要.  Can any native speakers comment?


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## aleo_china

*G*enerally speaking ,yao means want or want to 
*A*nd xiang means would like


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## aleo_china

palomnik said:


> Case in point: I've heard it said that 别 was originally an abbreviation of 不要. Can any native speakers comment?


*I* think *I* would agree no more with u*you*.
*B*ie and bu yao have nearly the same pronouciations. *W*e may found that there are the same example like, beng =bu yong.
*A*nyway, bie has other meanings as departure or special or other in ancient times, it has the meaning as bu yao nowadays.
* S*o we may regard it as the short form of buyao


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## Setwale_Charm

Thank you so much, everybody, for this useful elaboration on my question. Unfortunately, I cannot read Chinese characters on this computer, I will have to get to my office to read the Chinese part, but thanks anyway for your help.


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## Staarkali

You can install the Extrem Oriental set of characters in windows (if you are using windows), thats easy, handy and takes only 230MB or so.


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