Хотеть / Желать / Хотеться (to want / wish)

Infinitive (imperfective): хоте́ть — "to want" Softer impersonal: хо́чется (+ dative) — "to feel like, to fancy" Wishing verb: жела́ть / пожела́ть (+ genitive) — "to wish (someone something)" Type: хоте́ть is one of the four mixed-conjugation verbs in Russian — singular like the second conjugation, plural like the first

"Wanting" in Russian is not a single verb but a small cluster, and choosing between them is part of sounding natural. The blunt, everyday verb is хоте́ть ("I want"), but it is also one of the rare mixed-conjugation verbs: its singular forms take first-conjugation endings (хочу́, хо́чешь, хо́чет) while its plural forms take second-conjugation endings (хоти́м, хоти́те, хотя́т), and the stem itself switches from soft хоч- to hard хот-. Alongside it sits the gentler, impersonal хо́чется ("Мне хо́чется ко́фе" — "I feel like coffee"), which softens a desire and shifts the wanter into the dative. And for formal good wishes — luck, happiness, health — Russian uses жела́ть, which governs the genitive. This page covers all three, plus the construction every learner needs: how to say "I want someone else to do something."

Present tense — the mixed conjugation of хоте́ть

хоте́ть is irregular and must be memorised. The split is clean: all three singular persons follow the first conjugation (and soften the stem to хоч-, with a stress shift), while all three plural persons follow the second conjugation (hard stem хот-). This is the verb most often cited as the textbook example of разноспряга́емый глаго́л (a "mixed-conjugation verb"); the full set is on the irregular verbs page.

Two traps live here. First, the stem consonant: singular forms have the soft хоч- (a т → ч mutation), plural forms have the hard хот-. Second, the stress: it sits on the ending in хочу́ but jumps back onto the stem in хо́чешь, хо́чет — then jumps forward again to the endings in the plural (хоти́м, хоти́те, хотя́т). No other common verb does exactly this, so drill the rhythm out loud.

Past tense

The past is completely regular off the хоте́- stem — no mixed forms, no stress surprises. The same goes for жела́ть.

A high-frequency idiom uses the past: хоте́л(а) бы + infinitive = "I would like to" — the polite, conditional softening of a bare хочу́. The particle бы turns a blunt demand into a request, exactly like English "I'd like" versus "I want."

Future tense

хоте́ть is imperfective, so its future is the compound future with бу́ду. In practice, though, "I'll want" is rarely said; Russians more often use the present хочу́ for an immediate desire or restructure the sentence. There is a perfective захоте́ть ("to come to want, to take a notion") for the inception of a desire.

The perfective захо́чешь keeps the same mixed pattern as the simplex. It means "to get the urge / to feel like (at some point)": Е́сли захо́чешь, позвони́ — "If you feel like it, call."

Imperative

A true command "want!" makes little sense, so the imperative of хоте́ть (хоти́, хоти́те) is rare and mostly literary or set-phrase. The everyday "as you wish / suit yourself" is как хо́чешь / как хоти́те. By contrast, the imperative of жела́ть is fully alive in greetings.

Participles and verbal adverbs

The genuinely useful form here is жела́ющий, which has hardened into a noun meaning "those who wish / volunteers": Есть жела́ющие? — "Any takers?" The verbal adverb хотя́ from хоте́ть has, fascinatingly, frozen into the conjunction хотя́ "although" — a separate word now, but a reminder of the verb's reach.

Key uses & collocations

1. хоте́ть + infinitive (same subject) — "I want to do X"

When the wanter and the doer are the same person, use хоте́ть directly with an infinitive — exactly like English "I want to go." No subordinate clause is needed.

2. хочу́, что́бы… + past tense — "I want SOMEONE ELSE to do X"

This is the construction English speakers most often get wrong. When the wanter and the doer are different people, Russian cannot use an infinitive — there is no "I want you to go." Instead you need a subordinate clause with что́бы, and the verb inside it goes into the past-tense form (which here functions as a subjunctive, not a real past). The logic: you are wanting a state of affairs to become true, so the clause is irrealis.

3. хо́чется + dative — the softer, impersonal "I feel like"

хо́чется is the impersonal reflexive of хоте́ть. There is no grammatical subject; the wanter goes into the dative, and the thing wanted is either an infinitive or a noun. It softens the desire — less "I want," more "I feel like / I could do with" — and sounds more polite and less demanding. This dative-subject pattern is covered on the dative subject page.

4. жела́ть + genitive — formal wishes

To wish someone something abstract — luck, health, happiness, success — use жела́ть + dative of the person + genitive of the thing wished. The genitive here is the genitive of "wishing for" an intangible (you can't grasp luck, so it stays genitive, not accusative). Concrete wishes can take an infinitive instead: Жела́ю хорошо́ отдохну́ть — "I wish you a good rest." See the genitive forms page for the endings.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• хоте́ть is mixed-conjugation: singular like the 1st conjugation with a soft stem (хочу́, хо́чешь, хо́чет), plural like the 2nd with a hard stem (хоти́м, хоти́те, хотя́т). Watch the stress jump back to the stem in хо́чешь / хо́чет.
• Same subject → хоте́ть + infinitive (Я хочу́ спать). Different subjects → хочу́, что́бы + past-form (Я хочу́, что́бы ты спал).
• хо́чется + dative is the softer, impersonal "I feel like" — politer and less demanding than хочу́.
• жела́ть + dative + genitive for formal good wishes: жела́ю вам сча́стья, жела́ю уда́чи.
• Polite "I'd like" = хоте́л(а) бы + infinitive, the conditional softening of хочу́.
• The frozen participle жела́ющие means "those who wish / volunteers" (Есть жела́ющие?).