住んでいたい and 住みたい


Can anyone tell me, what is the difference between 住んでいたい and 住みたい?

Both seem to be valid words... But I'm unsure which I should be using.




**住みたい** means "want to live" and **is the default choice**.

**住んでいたい** is its progressive form and **is used when there's some sense of
progression** , which works best when you're _already_ living where you want
to live "progressively".

One overlap of usage is, e.g.

>   1. ずっと東京に住みたい。
>   2. ずっと東京に住んでいたい。
>

This is not a perfect analogy, but in English we have roughly corresponding

>   1. I want to live in Tokyo forever.
>   2. I want to be/keep living in Tokyo forever.
>

The second sentence can really only be said by someone already living in
Tokyo, with a strong attachment to Tokyo. The first would usually be used by
someone, who wishes to _move_ (and live) in Tokyo. When the first sentence is
used by someone already living in Tokyo, then it might suggest a more neutral
intention.

Just for reference, searching the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written
Japanese, I find

> 住みたい 133 results  
>  住んでいたい 5 results (without false positives)  
>  住んでたい 0 results

Of the 5 examples with 住んでいたい, 3 were using ずっと or いつまででも and all were
referring to people already living where they want to be/keep living.




**住みたい** means "want to live" and **is the default choice**.

**住んでいたい** is its progressive form and **is used when there's some sense of
progression** , which works best when you're _already_ living where you want
to live "progressively".

One overlap of usage is, e.g.

>   1. ずっと東京に住みたい。
>   2. ずっと東京に住んでいたい。
>

This is not a perfect analogy, but in English we have roughly corresponding

>   1. I want to live in Tokyo forever.
>   2. I want to be/keep living in Tokyo forever.
>

The second sentence can really only be said by someone already living in
Tokyo, with a strong attachment to Tokyo. The first would usually be used by
someone, who wishes to _move_ (and live) in Tokyo. When the first sentence is
used by someone already living in Tokyo, then it might suggest a more neutral
intention.

Just for reference, searching the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written
Japanese, I find

> 住みたい 133 results  
>  住んでいたい 5 results (without false positives)  
>  住んでたい 0 results

Of the 5 examples with 住んでいたい, 3 were using ずっと or いつまででも and all were
referring to people already living where they want to be/keep living.

