Spanish Idioms: Tener Ganas (de)

Transcript of the video lesson:

Hey, this is Joel from worldspanishteacher.com. In this lesson, I’m going to teach you the idiom “to feel like it” or “to feel like doing something.”

Now, the idiom is “tener ganas” which literal means to have desires. So I can say, “I feel like it” which would be “Tengo ganas.” Or, “I don’t feel like it” – “No tengo ganas”

“He feels like it” – “Él tiene ganas”

Alright, now if I want to say what I feel like doing or what I don’t feel like doing, I need to add the word “de” and then the infinitive of the verb. So, I can say, “I feel like eating pizza” – “Tengo ganas de comer pizza”

Or, “I don’t feel like eating pizza” – “No tengo ganas de comer pizza”

Alright, I can say, “I’m tired. I don’t feel like doing anything” – “Estoy cansado, no tengo ganas de hacer nada”

Let’s see… “He told me that he didn’t feel like going out today” – “Él me dijo que no tenía ganas de salir hoy”

So as you can see from those examples, you have the word “de” that goes after “ganas” and then the infinitive of the verb.

Alright, another quick example. Someone might say to you, “Do you want to go to the park?” and you can just say, “I don’t feel like it.” So that would be, “¿Quieres ir al parque?” – “No tengo ganas”.

So, remember, if you just want to say, “I don’t feel like it,” it’s “tener ganas” and if you want to say what you feel like doing or what you don’t feel like doing, then you need to add “de” and the infinitive of the verb. Not really that difficult. So it’s a really useful expression. You can use it a lot.

Alright, well I hope that this was helpful for you. Don’t forget to go to my website worldspanishteacher.com for more video lessons, my mp3 conversational course and native Spanish speakers to practice your Spanish with. Thanks for watching.

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