Differences between хочу and хотел

[thevoiceofnick.livejournal.com]

What exactly is the difference between хочу and хотел?

I have some tapes and they don't really explain when you use either one.

Comments

[spokojnik.livejournal.com]

i want - я хочу
i wanted - я хотел

it's just that simple))

[thevoiceofnick.livejournal.com]

Someone told me something about хотел meaning "i would like" or something... is that wrong, or is there another way of saying it?

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

For subjunctive... i.e., I would do this, that, the other, Russian puts things in past tense, I believe.

[spokojnik.livejournal.com]

i would like - я бы хотел

the trick is that u can use хотел in all variations of past tense, by only adding some extra sometimes.

[armalite.livejournal.com]

я хочу = I want = I'd like
я хотел = I wanted = I've wanted

[spokojnik.livejournal.com]

и даже i was wanting)))

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

I believe хочу is present tense, хотел is past.

[mopexod.livejournal.com]

"Хочу" - in present, "want it (now)"
"Хотел" - in past, "wanted it (before)"

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

Most verbs ending with a L or L+Vowel mean that they are in the past tense (past tense doesn't conjugate to the subject like present tense does btw, so it should end in L all the time. Easy to remember ^_^) The OO/U ending (however you wanna romanize it and I don't feel like going cyrillic right now sorry. I'm talking about that character that looks like y if you couldn't tell.) is the first person singular (I/Ya) ending in present tense.

I think I would like would be ya biy hochu or hotel, don't remember which, sorry. Possibly biyl instead of biy actually.

[spokojnik.livejournal.com]

ya by hotel ¤)

[noser.livejournal.com]

You can't say "Я бы хочу". Past tense is fixed in this expression. бы and был are not interchangeable.

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

can't you use by hochu since they are both in present tense? Or Byl hotel since they are both in past?

[noser.livejournal.com]

No, no. Бы is just a particle that puts the verb into subjunctive mood. Check this out:

http://masterrussian.com/aa042700a.shtml

[welgar.livejournal.com]

(я) хочу = (I) want
(anything masculine) хотел = wanted
(anything masculine) бы хотел / хотел бы = would like

[thevoiceofnick.livejournal.com]

I think this is what I was looking for. I guess it's want vs. would like. "Want" is a bit more barbaric in a way, and "would like" is a bit more sophisticated. Sort of like, "i want, i want, i want" vs. you would expect to see "please" attached whenever you say "would like". Am I right on this or am I just snobby?!

[kart.livejournal.com]

I'm no expert, but there are several ways to say "I would like...". First is бы хотел / хотел бы as explained above, but you could also use the optative-reflexive mood, хочется. For example,

(мне) хочется чего-то вкусного. = I would like something tasty.
This is a very common phrase in ru_kitchen ;)

Can any Russian experts explain how to decide between хотел бы and хочется? The reflexive seems much more common in informal writing on the web...

[welgar.livejournal.com]

thevoiceofnick is right about the difference between "хочу" and "хотел бы".
Now about the difference between "хотел бы" and "хочется".
"Хотел бы" is neutral and can be used in most of the situations. E.g., "Я хотел бы посмотреть эту машину" ("I'd like to see this car").
"Хочется" is spoken and usually means a desire that can't be easily implemented. E.g., "По утрам мне всегда хочется спать, но надо идти на работу" ("I always want to sleep in the mornings but I have to go to work").

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

When do you use бы хотел and хотел бы? Because I was taught that you only say хотел бы...

[welgar.livejournal.com]

They are interchangeable. You may use whichever form you like.

[floatt.livejournal.com]

Technically, as it was already mentioned,the only difference between хочу and хотел is tense- latter is a past tense.
Я бы хотел used in the same way as english I would like to, although literally it mean "I would have wanted".

[thevoiceofnick.livejournal.com]

Thank you to everyone who has responded! This clarifies so much!

Спасибо!