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From Noir, Episode 2 (anime).

I don't get what the って is doing in this sentence. For context, the father came home early from work. He quickly answers his wife in the first sentence then in the second sentence is asking his son this:

そうか。そうだアンリ、欲しがってたゲーム、明日パパと買いに行こうか？

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  • You know I didn't even know there was a verb for to want. I thought you had to use Xが欲しいです。 to express that. Hence, my confusion. You learn something new everyday.
    – dotnetN00b
    Jun 7, 2012 at 3:58
  • guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/clause, section "Using relative verb clauses as adjectives" explains it nicely.
    – herby
    Jun 7, 2012 at 14:37
  • @herby This is, IMO, different. It's an i-adjective that's been made into a verb (by dropping i and adding garu). Because I didn't realize that I couldn't tell what was going on.
    – dotnetN00b
    Jun 7, 2012 at 14:47

2 Answers 2

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It is the ～て form of ほしがる which means "to want".

ほしがってたゲーム　→　The game that I'd been wanting

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  • Wow. I didn't even know there was such a thing in Japanese.
    – dotnetN00b
    Jun 7, 2012 at 4:01
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hosigar-te i-ta (gemination)→ hosigatteita (contraction)→ hosigatteta
want-gerund progressive-past

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