65717
I'm trying to write

> "I have wanted to study Japanese from a young age"

And I have

> "若い時に私は日本語をずっと勉強したいです."

Does this work? How can I make it more correct?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-26T09:10:02.797
65716
2019-02-26T15:35:27.607
2019-02-26T09:34:06.570
5010
33096
question
syntax tense aspect
How can 若い時 and ずっと work in this sentence?
Your usage of ずっと is just fine, but there are some other errors. A minimally
corrected version is:

> 若い時 **から** 私は日本語をずっと勉強 **したかったです** 。

  * に refers to one time point in the past. But your desire is a longstanding one that have remained even after you were no longer 若い. So you should use から ("from") instead.
  * Your desire basically belongs to the past, so you need to use the past-form of 勉強したいです.

Optionally, you can express your longstanding desire up until now using ～ている,
which is a way to express the continuation of an action. したい is an adjectival
expression that does not straightforwardly connect to ている, but you can add と思う
and say:

> 若い時から私は日本語をずっと勉強したい **と思っていました** 。

This one is longer, but sounds more sophisticated and natural to me.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-26T09:54:39.027
65717
2019-02-26T09:54:39.027
5010
65716
answer
0) _From_ a young age:

> 若いときから私は日本語をずっと勉強したいです。

1) You should drop the 私は, since you can't say ~たい on behalf of someone else.
If there's a volition and it's not a question, it's strongly implied you're
talking about yourself. (If it is indeed a question, that means you're asking
someone about what they want, in a _very_ direct manner. This should be
avoided, unless among close friends/family).

> 若いときから日本語をずっと勉強したいです。

2) You want to put the volition in the past tense.

> 若いときから日本語をずっと勉強したかったです。

3) You should put the ずっと earlier on in the sentence. You'd _always_ wanted to
learn Japanse, but you hadn't wanted to be _constantly_ learning Japanese.

> 若いときからずっと日本語を勉強したかったです。

4) As naruto says above, ～と思っている sounds less absolute and more natural.

> 若いときからずっと日本語を勉強したいと思っていました。

5) (Optionally:) If you're expressing your story among other people's stories,
you might want to put the 私 back in, but at the front, to establish a context
(i.e "speaking for myself, I've always wanted .." :

> 私は、若いときからずっと日本語を勉強したいと思っていました。
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-26T15:35:27.607
65722
2019-02-26T15:35:27.607
33101
65716
answer