57274
I can't seem to wrap my head around the form verb-て+いたい

Is it a conjugation of verb-て+いる, or is it its own form?

And how is it different from verb-たい ? It seems to be translated the same.

Some examples:

```

    食べていたい vs 食べたい 
    愛を信じていたい vs 愛を信じたい 
    壊さないでいたい vs 壊したくない 
    はなれないでいたい vs はなれたくない 
    勉強していたい vs 勉強したい
    
```
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-14T16:22:50.573
57269
2018-03-14T17:47:20.943
20056
question
grammar
verb-て+いたい vs verb-たい
～ていたい is the combination of ～ている and ～たい ("want to ～"). ～ている describes [the
continuation of an action ("is doing") and the continuation of a state ("has
done")](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3122/5010).

So 見たい is "want to watch", whereas 見ていたい is "want to be watching." Typically
～ていたい is used when you have already started something and want to continue
what you are doing.

>   * テレビを見たい。  
>  I want to watch TV.
>   * もっとテレビを見ていたい。  
>  I want to keep watching TV. / I want to watch TV more.
>

The difference between 壊さないでいたい and 壊したくない is somewhat obscure, but the former
basically says you want to _keep_ the current "not-broken" status.

Sometimes ～ていたい can also describe the continuation of state until some time
point in the future. Using a typical instant state-change verb 結婚する ("to get
married"):

>   * 5年後に結婚していたい。  
>  I want to be married within five years. (literally "I want to have gotten
> married in five years" i.e., I want to be in the 'married' state in five
> years)
>   * 5年後に結婚したい。  
>  I want to marry after 5 years from now. (i.e., I don't want to marry for
> the time being)
>
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-14T17:34:02.537
57274
2018-03-14T17:47:20.943
2018-03-14T17:47:20.943
5010
5010
57269
answer