to show signs of (another person's feeling)

Emotion and desire adjectives like ほしい, 怖い, and たい describe inner states, so for third parties Japanese uses the stem plus がる: showing signs of that feeling. The object of the feeling takes を instead of が. The continuous がっている describes a current visible state.

Examples

• 妹いもうとは犬いぬを怖こわがっています。

  Imouto wa inu o kowagatte imasu.

  My little sister is scared of dogs.

• 友達ともだちは新あたらしいスマホを欲ほしがっています。

  Tomodachi wa atarashii sumaho o hoshigatte imasu.

  My friend wants a new smartphone.

Vocabulary in these examples

• 妹 younger sister
• 犬 dog
• 怖い scary, frightening
• いる to exist (animate); to be
• 友達 friend
• 新しい new

Related patterns · Appearance, hearsay, and conjecture

• 〜そうだ（様態） looks like, seems about to
• 〜そうだ（伝聞） I heard that, they say that
• 〜ようだ it seems that, it appears that
• 〜らしい apparently, it seems (based on what one heard)
• 〜みたいだ seems like, looks like, is like
• 〜かもしれない might, may, possibly