Questions about example sentences with, and the definition and usage of "Ghosts"

A: con ma

A: The key here is "to be". What they want is an experience, a state of being. They want themselves to be wanted by someone else. They want to be the thing that is wanted/desired/valued/liked. They want to be the thing that someone else wants so strongly. They wish to be desired. They wish to be cared about.

They want = their desire, their hope, their wish, etc
to be wanted = to feel valued by someone else, to have someone else desire them, to be (or to feel) valuable. They want to be what someone else wishes they could have. They want to be the thing that makes someone else feel happy. They want to be what someone else desires. They want someone to care about them.

It is like an inversion of the concept: what they most want...is for someone else to want them back. Most statements about "wanting" something are about my desire going outward --> towards the things I want. But in this case, they want to reverse that. The thing they most want, is for someone else in the world to have desire towards themselves. They want to receive the wanting, not to give the wanting. So that is why it is using "to be" here, to make "wanted' into a state of being, an experience. So instead of you wanting something else, it is about something else wanting you. Without that "to be" part, it would be assumed that it was about an external thing that you wanted, an object.

For example:
- All I wanted was to be thankful. = what I most desired was to feel thankful, to experience a state of thankfulness.
- All I wanted was to be angry. = what I most desired was to feel anger, to experience a state of strong anger with nothing else.
- All I wanted was to be happy. = what I most desired was to feel happy, to experience a state of happiness with nothing else.
- All I wanted was to be wanted. = what I most desired was to feel wanted/desired/valued [by someone else], to experience a state of being cared about by someone else, to feel like I was important to someone else. I want to experience them wanting me.

But if you say "All I wanted was anger" then it could mean you wanted someone else to be angry, or you wanted to see an example of anger to study it, or you wanted to cause anger in other people, or you wanted to promote anger as an ideal, or you wanted to feel anger yourself...etc it is very generalized in meaning and could be confusing what is meant. Saying "to be" tells us that this is something you want to be, to inhabit, to experience yourself, to become yourself. So "to be angry" tells us you want to experience anger yourself, etc. So if the sentences uses "to be" it adds a very specific meaning to it.

So "to be wanted/desired/liked/valued" means they wish to experience these things themselves. They don't just want it, they want "to be" it (to become it, to feel it, to experience it).

It is a complex idea, but hopefully that makes sense. It is not easy to explain.

A: yes but the first one litle bit unnatural

A: Very good!
4) I fear ghosts.

A: "There appear to be ghosts in this house," or "This house seems haunted."

A: I just think some of the words are a little choppy. Try something like "Ghosts roamed the abandoned village. Some fearless boys walked towards the village."