I was wondering if the following two sentences have the same meaning. I'm seeing both をほしい and がほしい on my Anki deck and I was just wondering if they were interchangeable or if I just made a mistake when I was adding them in.
トムさんはともだちをほしがっています。
トムさんはともだちがほしがっています。
Thank you everyone!
欲しい is an adjective, "を + adjective" is not common, "が + adjective" is common, so が欲しい is common.
欲しがる is a verb and mainly used as a transitive verb, so を is usually placed before 欲しがる.
Grammaticaly speaking, を is the right choice here because of がる being attached to ほしい. If ほしい is alone, then が is the right choice. But you may find both, still, がほしい is way more common than をほしい and をほしがっている is more frequent that がほしがっている.
When the speaker itself is the subject:
When the speaker wants to say that someone (third person) wants something or wants to do something:
When the speaker wants to ask someone (second person):
新しい車がほしいですか。 Do you want a new car?
一万円を貸してほしいですか。Do you want me to lend ten thousands yen?
objectがほしい is always with が and を〜て form+ほしい is always with を.