～てみたい

[crownedjitter]

Recently I studied the use of ～みたい　to indicate something one wanted to do, but 　～みたい　is followed by です。　Now my understanding is that adding です makes the sentence polite, so in informal conversation it can be dropped. Is this also true of ～てみたい as featured in Beginner Lesson #165, "House of Horrors"? Can I or should I add です to make it formal, or is this not necessary for this construction?

Thanks!

Jason

[Airth]

Right. I haven't listened to the lesson, but みたい is just like any other い adjective regardless of the structure it is used in. Leave it as it is in informal conversation, and add です in polite conversation.

[Jason]

Just keep in mind that the "seems like" みたい is a different word than the "want to do" 〜みたい and is NOT an i-adjective but actually a na-adjective. So it still needs the copula だ in plain form. Though in informal speech, both with みたい and in general, females tend to drop だ a LOT.