“What do you want? When will you get it?” || 想 vs 要 (vs 会)

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"If I want to say 'I want to go to China'?
...should I say '想' or '要' here...and what about '会', when do I use that?"

or

"OK, they said '要'...
Do they mean "want" or "will" or "need to"?
Why does Chinese seem so ambigious?"

Have you been there before? I know I have.

No, not the part about being indecisive in relationships, the part about Chinese!

The most important thing to remember here is (again, we're back to Chinese):
Chinese is a high context language!
And context will be the key to understanding and making ourselves understood.

It takes a bit of practice, and sometimes asking follow up questions and providing additional context, but I'm sure you can master it in no time!

Let’s tackle them one at a time. :)

会 || will, matter of fact (plan is set, no emotion)

"会" is the only one of the three that does not mean "want".
But it is still used in the conversation of future plans, and is an excellent additional benchmark to compare against "要" and "想".

Let's dive into some examples.

我明天会吃巧克力。
I tomorrow will eat chocolate.

Fact.
There's no stopping me.

我明天不会去 。
I tomorrow am not going.

You’ve already made up your mind that you’re not going.

We use "会" simply to say “I will/won’t do something in the future.”
There’s really no desire or emotion here.
We’re just saying it’s happening.

Note:

"会" also means "to be able to", but for more on that, check out this article: Can I? May I?
This should be easy to distinguish between the two meanings of "会" because we would never say “I have the learned ability to go tomorrow” :P

想 || want to (no current plans, just desire phase)

Let's look at that same example again:


我明天想吃巧克力 。
I tomorrow want to eat chocolate

"想" is probably the clearest of the three.

They simply want to do something.
No plans, no obligation.
Simply a desire.


我想去中国。
I want (to) go (to) China.

No plans yet, but I want to go.

Important Note:

To mean “want”, "想" MUST be followed by a VERB.

Otherwise, it will mean “to think/to miss”.

要 || must/need to, will/want to

“要” is one of the most powerful, and to beginners, one of the most ambiguous words in the Chinese language.
It can be used in many different situations, and it sits right in between the meanings of "会" and "想".

While it may seem like it can mean many things, the usages usually boil down to one of these two concepts:

1. Must/need to || some sort of obligation
2. Want to/will || somewhere in between wanting to and planning to do something

Remember that context is VERY important in Chinese, and is incredibly helpful for determining someone’s meaning
And, interestingly enough, sometimes in Chinese, the distinction is not very important.
We will see some examples where that is the case below.

我明天要吃巧克力。

Do you think this person has an obligation to eat chocolate tomorrow?
Probably not.
Unless they are addicted or they are a chocolate taster and have to eat chocolate for work?

So it’s most likely ”want to/will”.

In Chinese, the connection between “want” and “plan” can often be really close.
Maybe they already have plans to, maybe not. But at least that desire is most likely there.

Here’s another example that should also be obvious for most people.

我明天要工作 。
I tomorrow will/must work.

For MOST people, they are probably not saying “want” here. :P

If they say it with a lot of enthusiasm and they seem to love working, then maybe they do mean “want to”!
But probably not :P

So they likely mean “I must” work tomorrow.
There is a sense of duty, something they have to do.

One final example:

我明天要去朋友的家。
I tomorrow will/want to go [to] friend’s house.

Honestly, in this case, it could mean either of the two meanings above.

Maybe they want to go, if the schedule allows.
Maybe they have to go drop something off?
“要” sometimes just isn't that clear.

And that's what's actually cool about “要”!
If we want to be extra clear, we can use “会’ or “想” instead.

But if we just want to state a general need/desire/intention to do something, “要” is enough to keep the conversation flowing.

Special “要” usages

I mentioned that “要” is the most powerful of the three.
That's also because “要” has a couple special usages that “想”, and definitely “会”, can't do.

1. Express a want/request for a noun/object
2. Express a want for someone to do something

If we want to say “I want + [noun]”, we must use "要"

Examples：

“我要一杯热水”
“I want/would like a cup of hot water”.

“我要新的手机”
“I want [a] new phone”


You may have noticed this is especially useful for ordering food/buying things!

Of course, we can also add a verb afterwards and it would mean basically the exact same thing.
But we have the flexibility to leave it off.
“想”doesn't give us that luxury.

If we want to say “I want [person] + [to do something]”, we must use "要"

Examples：

“明天我的爸爸要我帮他。”
“Tomorrow, my dad wants me [to] help him.”

“我不要Gordon Ramsey教我做饭”
“I don't want Gordon Ramsey [to] teach me make food.”

开玩笑 == just kidding

Recap

We use "会" to say “I will do something. Fact.”

We use "想" to say “I want to do something, but have no plans yet.”

We use "要" for basically anything in between. “I want to/need to/have plans to do something.”

Bonus: What about “想要”

You may have seen the combination of the two of them and wondered what they mean togther.
Exactly what you'd think: a combination of both of their meanings!

“想要” has all of the grammatical power of “要”, but with a bit more softness and politeness.

For all intents and purposes, just treat it like “要”, but softer :)