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I know both of them mean "want to" but have usage in different contexts. When should I use each one?

For example:

我要去上海市 and 我想去上海市

What's the difference in the meaning between them?

Also, I've seen these two characters together in some sentences.

我想要去上海市

When they're together, is there a third context?

Bad At Chinese
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gustavotkg
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  • Can I ask, why do you use 厺 instead of 去? This was the first time I've ever seen the former and I had to look it up in a dictionary. – Bjorn Dec 21 '11 at 19:18
  • I think the one I used was traditional writtern, whereas yours is simplified. Can check more at http://yizitong.com/dict/xinhua_results.php?o=%E5%8E%BB&l=1 – gustavotkg Dec 21 '11 at 19:30
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    This is a very old shape for 去, and currently not even used traditional Chinese (well, a search on web didn't return many normal articles). So I think it is safe to say that this character is not used in current Chinese. It should be only used to transcribe very old articles, when the character did take this shape. – fefe Dec 23 '11 at 10:34

4 Answers4

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The way I differentiate between these two is using "want" and "need".

In English "need" still means "want to", but there is an added necessity.

This is apparent in the following two sentences:

我想吃饭

I want to eat

我要吃饭

I need to eat

You will also hear people using 需要 (Xūyào) to indicate need, so just think of 要 as a shortened version of that:

你需要我做什么？

What do you need me to do

想要 is interchangeable with 想 in most uses.

Also worth noting is 要 can be used to indicate "going to":

你为什么想把它弄坏了？

Why do you want to break it?

你为什么要把它弄坏了？

Why are you going to break it?

你为什么想去他家？

Why do you want to go to (his/her) house?

你为什么要去他家？

Why are you going to (his/her) house?

going
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    Is 需要 alway interchangeable with 要, or are there some rules about that? – Cocowalla Dec 19 '11 at 08:40
  • @Cocowalla - They are interchangeable. – going Dec 19 '11 at 09:27
  • Nice answer, thanks. I found this question when typing my own version of it. A small follow-up question for you: why did you translate 他家 as "his/her house"? 他 is unambiguously male, isn't it? – Don Kirkby Dec 29 '11 at 06:30
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    @DonKirkby - On mainland China 他 is used for both male and female. I've only seen 她 used as a stylistic thing for advertising and some old formal writing. From my understanding 她 is still used in TW regularly. – going Dec 29 '11 at 08:57
  • Fascinating. All my teachers have been from Taiwan, so I had no idea. – Don Kirkby Dec 30 '11 at 06:37
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    @xiaohouzi79 when I studied at Zhejiang University and Beijing Institute of Education, they taught both 他 and 她 (former for male, latter for female.) I never saw 他 to mean female also. – Ming Feb 19 '14 at 06:35
  • @Ming http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/5925/how-gender-specific-in-writing-is-the-character-%E4%BB%96 – going Feb 20 '14 at 00:34
  • I think it comes down to the difference between intention and desire. 要 indicates an intention i.e. that the action is certain to be conducted in the future, whereas 想 indicates simply an abstract desire for that action be done. 我想吃饭 indeed means "I want to eat," but I would say 我要吃饭 means something closer to "I am going to eat" -- the desire is implicit, and the intent is very clear. – Marko Aug 13 '19 at 02:42
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要 has more certainty or confidence than 想 in tone.

Bruce Li
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3

想 means you 'want to do' something , but maybe you would not to do it, just think about it. 要 means you 'will do' something and it have been put in your schedule

Griffin Li
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要 usually means "want", but there are a few possible definitions to 想, 想 may possibly mean "think", or another possible definition is "want". Some examples: 我想去购物商场。 我要去购物商场。 我想要去购物商场。 When compared, 要 has more confidence in tone compared to 想.

thelegendary08
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