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I recently learned how to use ~たい to say things that I want to do; for example:

えいが を みたい です。

I want to see a movie.

And I learned how to use ~たりする to say examples of things that I did, do, or will do:

きのう、にほんご を べんきょう したり、本 を よんだり しました。

Yesterday, I did things like study Japanese, read a book, etc.

I am wondering how I would use these two constructions in order to say something like "I want to do things like watch a movie, study Japanese, read a book, etc." Is it possible to combine ~たい and ~たりする to make such a sentence, and if so, how?

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I don't really trust myself with my Japanese grammar skills so you might want to get a second opinion on this, but this is how I would translate "I want to do things like watch a movie, study Japanese, read a book, etc." into Japanese:

私は映画を見たり、日本語を勉強したり、本を読んだりしたいです。

So starting with the usual X~たり、Y~たりします pattern the only thing that needs to change if you want to say "I want to do X, Y, etc." is the します at the end which becomes したい(です).

I hope I make sense, I'm not very good at explaining stuff.

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  • Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense! Thank you for the answer. I'm glad it turned out to be a lot simpler than I thought it would be. :)
    – Summer
    Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 7:38
  • Glad I could help :) Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 7:45

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