# 싶다 vs. 시퍼 하다



## Bagmoolgwan

I am a novice when it comes to Korean, so I thought I would work through the novice level of the Sogang university on-line course that is mentioned in the opening message here. No big problems so far, but I _was_ surprised when I came across the Sogang way of saying "to want to do (something)", which seems to be 시퍼 하다 and not 싶다 which I have seen in all the several novice courses I have looked at earlier. What is going on?


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## Hit Girl

Bagmoolgwan said:


> I am a novice when it comes to Korean, so I thought I would work through the novice level of the Sogang university on-line course that is mentioned in the opening message here. No big problems so far, but I _was_ surprised when I came across the Sogang way of saying "to want to do (something)", which seems to be 시퍼 하다 and not 싶다 which I have seen in all the several novice courses I have looked at earlier. What is going on?



I don't quite get it. Do you mean Sogang lesson says 시퍼하다? It's not standard spelling. That's crazy. Maybe they're trying to be cute?
I do that when texting with friends, when I intentionally mangle proper spelling just for fun.
It should be 싶어하다.


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## Bagmoolgwan

Sorry, my novice spelling was wrong. The Sogang _spelling _is 싶어, yes. So, what I am wondering about is a sentence like this (Sogang Novice Korean Lesson 8):

미나씨가 어디에 가고 *싶어 했어요 *? Where did Mina want to go?

Why is it *싶어 했어요*? Why not

미나씨가 어디에 가고* 싶었어요?*


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## Hit Girl

Oh, I see! Sorry for misunderstanding.
Both 싶었다 and 싶어했다 are valid.
To me however, 미나씨가 어디에 가고 *싶어 했어요*? sounds more natural than 미나씨가 어디에 가고* 싶었어요?.*
I'm just thinking about it now but I can say 싶다 is used for 1st and 2nd person.

For example,

너는 어디에 가고 싶었니? (반말, casual form) Where did you want to go?
나는 파리에 가고 싶었어/싶었어요. I wanted to go to Paris.

You can of course use 싶어 했다 in the above example. But it's less common than 싶다 in 1st and 2nd person sentences.

너는 어디 가고 싶어 했어?
나는 파리에 가고 싶어 했어.

For a 3rd person Mina, the 싶어하다 form sounds more normal.

When people text, many usually write 시퍼 because it's easier to type that way 
For example, 나 파리 가고 시퍼... I want to go to Paris.


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