Can desire be expressed for entities that do not hold volition? We can personify things. By using "want" with an inanimate object, it is personified: > An object with inertia **wants** to maintain its state of motion. **(Question)** First, is it possible in Japanese for this kind of desiderative sentence to be formed? If it is possible, do I use `` or ``? Because according to Derek Schaab's answer to "When to use instead of ": > * you cannot presume to know the intimate details of a third person's mental state > > * and even if you're 100% certain he wants, you can't say this directly. > > Will an entity that does not hold volition take `` when personified?

You can definitely personify objects in Japanese.

>

is not _wrong_ per se, but firstly, it's obvious to the listener that a personification is going on, and secondly, the colloquial feeling that the personification creates might not go well with the scientific feel of the rest of the sentence. A more natural translation might be

>

When objects are personified in Japanese, it's probably more obvious to the listener than is the case in English, and therefore more restricted to colloquial/jocular use. But that doesn't mean it's uncommon. For example, it's quite common to use to refer to things, and somebody trying to be funny might even say .

In the company where I work, I wouldn't find it strange if somebody complained about some software causing trouble by saying

>

but the statement would be obviously jocular.