고 싶다

[tkmayfie]

I am using the Sogang online Korean program and have a question concerning this verb.

The lesson says:
Tense and negation are contained in 고 싶다.

In terms of tense it gave this sentence as an example:
피자를 먹고 싶어요-I wanted to eat pizza.

But when I read it, it seems to me that that sentence could also mean "I want to eat pizza." From what I've learned wouldn't "I wanted to eat pizza" be something like this:
피자를 먹고 싶었어요
could it just be a typo in the lesson?



Also in terms of negation it gave this sentence as an example:
피자를 먹고 싶지않아요-I don’t want to eat pizza.
I understand the concept pretty well, except for the 지 added after 싶 Why was that added?


If someone could clear these questions up I'd appreciate it!

[dtymazda]

Let's see if I can explain it..

Yes you are correct, if you mean, in the past, I wanted to eat Pizza 피자를 먹고 싶었어요.

However, sometimes in english we drop to past tense when present tense would be more correct (i.e. telling someone else that John wanted to eat Pizza but I decided we'll go eat Kalbi instead. Yes technically that's past tense as of 30 seconds ago, but it's still present tense in Korean)

(And teachers please correct me, of course, I'm explaining with the knowledge level of a fellow student)

as for the I don't want to eat pizza, that's the standard negation rule.
http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/i ... A%EB%8B%A4

V+지 않다

먹고 싶지 않아요. - I don't want to eat (object)
먹지 않아요 -I am not eating (object) or Do not eat (object)
안 먹어요. I won't eat (object)
못 먹어요. I can't eat (object)

[tkmayfie]

미안해...지금 just noticed I never said 고마워요...그럼...고마워요!!!. That helped me understand the concept, guess it was a typo on the website.

[dtymazda]

아니에요, 괜찮아요.