Dar Ganas De in Spanish: How to Use This Expression?

September 9, 2021

Do you know what dar ganas de means in Spanish? 👀

In Spanish, we use the verb phrase dar ganas de, pronounced dahr gah-nahs deh, to say that we want, crave, or feel like having something. For example:

Cuando estaba embarazada, me daban ganas de comer fresas todas las mañanas. – When I was pregnant, I felt like eating strawberries every morning.
Estoy tan feliz que me dan ganas de llorar. – I’m so happy I want to cry.
En TV pasa, con frecuencia, una publicidad que hace dar ganas de ir a España, en vacaciones, tal vez con la familia. – Popping up regularly on TV is advertising that really makes you want to spend your holidays in Spain, perhaps with the whole family.

Next time you feel like eating chocolate, say it in Spanish: Esto me da ganas de comer chocolate. Keep in mind that dar ganas de is a transitive verb phrase and requires a direct object. Next, we’re going to talk about what dar, ganas, and de mean, and I’ll give you more easy-to-remember examples with dar ganas de.

The many meanings of dar in Spanish

Dar is a Spanish verb and is most often translated as “to give.” At first glance, it seems like a basic verb, but there’s much more to it once you take a closer look. You can use dar to express the idea of giving something tangible. For example: Le di a mi hermanita un osito de peluche cuando estaba enferma (I gave my little sister a teddy bear when she was sick.) Or something less tangible, such as dar un golpe (to give a blow.)

If you want to speak Spanish like a native, I recommend using dar to say “Can I have something…?” Imagine you’re at the farmers’ market and you want to ask for two kilos of tomatoes. In English, we’d say “Can I have two kilos of tomatoes?”, but in Spanish, we use dar: ¿Me da dos kilos de tomates? Learn more about how to talk about food in Spanish.

Furthermore, dar is also used in many Spanish expressions. Let’s see a few examples:

Dar la gana – To want to
Darse prise – To hurry up
Dar igual – To not matter
Darse cuenta de – To realize (I wrote a whole article about darse cuenta de here.)
Dar pena – To feel sorry (about)
Dar asco – To disgust

As you can see, dar is a popular verb in Spanish. And because it is a verb, you need to know how to conjugate it. On SpanishDict, you can find the full conjugation of dar.

Ganas and ganar in Spanish

Ganas is a plural noun and means “desire,” while ganar is a verb that means “to win” or “to earn.” In dar ganas de, we have the verb dar (to give) + the noun ganas (desire, urge) + the preposition de (from, of). I said that ganas is a plural noun because in Spanish we also have gana, a feminine noun with no direct translation. But you could think about it in the context of dar la gana (to want to): Podría ayudarlo pero no me da la gana (I could help him but I don’t want to.) Here are a couple of examples with ganas:

No tengo ganas de ir a cenar a un restaurante japonés. – I have no desire to go to a Japanese restaurant for dinner.
Me dan ganas de ir a las montañas. – I feel like going to the mountains.

The preposition de translates as “from” or “of” and is used to indicate origin, time, material, content, characteristics, or, among many other things, to express possession or cause. By the way, besides dar ganas de, also check out these 15 Spanish expressions you should know.