The meaning of 「気が合わない人といっしょに生活するぐらいなら、このまま独身でいたい。」

Question

I would like to clarify my understanding of the following sentence.

気【き】が合【あ】わない人【ひと】といっしょに生活【せいかつ】するぐらいなら、このまま独身【どくしん】でいたい。

I believe it means something along the lines of, "if I am going to be living with someone I don't get along with, I would rather be single."

In addition to the translation, are the following assertions accurate?

1. いたい is conjugated from いる (to exist) to mean "to want to be".
2. From the 〜たい suffix, the subject of the sentence can be inferred to be the speaker.
3. 〜と生活する means not just to physically live together (roommates), but more like to spend the rest of one's life with someone.

Also, could the sentence also have been expressed with 〜ほしい? I haven't ever come across the たい form of いる before, so I suppose that confuses me somewhat.

Answer 1

You have clearly got the gist of the sentence.

1.いたい is conjugated from いる (to exist) to mean "to want to be".

Grammatically, yes, but the actual meaning and nuance of 「～～でいたい」 is "to stay (a certain way)". In this case, "to stay single" rather than "to be single".

2.From the 〜たい suffix, the subject of the sentence can be inferred to be the speaker.

Definitely. I mentioned this in another thread a few days ago, but in Japanese, one cannot express another person's desire with 「たい」 alone. We use 「～～たがっている」.

3.〜と生活する means not just to physically live together (roommates), but more like to spend the rest of one's life with someone.

Precisely. It means "to be married to ~~" most of the time.

Also, could the sentence also have beenxpressed with 〜ほしい? I haven't ever come across the たい form of いる before, so I suppose that confuses me somewhat.

No, that would be impossible because only nouns can precede 「ほしい」. You cannot combine a verb with 「ほしい」.