How do you say "What do you want?" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "What do you want?" is 何が欲しいですか? (nani ga hoshī desu ka ?). It is a phrase.

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

何が欲しいですか? is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as nani ga hoshī desu ka ?, it sounds roughly like "nah-nee gah hoh-shee deh-soo kah ?" to an English ear.

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Questions about 何が欲しいですか?

How do you pronounce 何が欲しいですか??

何が欲しいですか? is romanised as nani ga hoshī desu ka ?. Say it roughly like "nah-nee gah hoh-shee deh-soo kah ?" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 何が欲しいですか? formal or casual?

何が欲しいですか? is a neutral, everyday word that works in both casual and polite speech. The level of formality comes from the sentence structure around it, not from the word itself.

How is 何が欲しいですか? written in Japanese?

何が欲しいですか? is written using kanji and hiragana. Kanji characters carry the core meaning; any hiragana or katakana that follow show grammatical endings.

This word is part of the vocabulary taught in the Japanese language learning game Noun Town, where words are introduced through play rather than memorisation.