Voy a hacer lo que me da la puta gana

Before we get into today's expression, we need to talk about the word gana.

A gana is a desire, or a want.

You'll also (and more commonly) hear the plural form of the word, ganas.   We won't be looking at the word ganas today, but I did write  about how to use the word ganas back in 2010.   I recommend you read the post on ganas to get a handle on the word, it's pretty common so you'll need to have this one in your Spanish toolbox for sure.

Now we're ready to move on to the good stuff.

Hago lo que me da la gana
I do whatever I feel like

Dar la gana is the idiomatic expression you use to tell people that you do whatever you feel like.  It can come across as kind of strong, so be careful of how you use it.

I reserve the right to dress however I want

¿Por qué no vas a la fiesta?
No me da la gana

Why aren't you going to the party?
I don't feel like it

Por mí puedes hacer lo que te da la gana
You can do what you like for all I care

Now, if you want to really to emphasis the fact that you aren't in the mood to do something, then you just need add what I like to call a sentence enhancer.  The first sentence enhancer we'll look at is regalada.

Normally regalada means something is a good deal, a bargain, or a steal as we would say.   But for some reason when you use it with the expression dar la gana, it takes on whole new meaning.

Hago lo que me da la regalada gana
I do whatever the hell I feel like

Por qué quieres hacer eso?
Porque me da la regalada gana

Why do you want to do that?
Because I damn well feel like it




And now we get to the next sentence enhancer and today's expression:

Voy a hacer lo que me da la puta gana
I'm going to do what I f'ing want to do

I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain what "f'ing" means.  Much less that this is for sure one of those situations that this will come across as rather strong.

The word puta in Spanish is very much a bad word and has quite a few meanings.  I tend to keep this blog PG (ok, sometimes PG-13) so you can read about the many uses of puta on my No Seas Pelangoche blog.




Now, as usual, there's more than one way to skin a cat (hay muchas formas de pelar un gato) in Spanish, which brings us to the expression pegarsele la gana. In grammatical terms that's pretty complicated.  The examples below will help you figure out how to use it.

It means the exact same thing.

No se me pega la gana
I don't feel like it

Sé de él solo cuando le pega la gana
I only hear from him when he feels like it

Porque se me pega la regalada gana
Because I damn well feel like it

Hago lo que se me pega la gana
I do whatever I feel like

Me hablas cuando se te pega la gana
You talk to me whenever you feel like it

You can use the same sentence enhancers I mentioned above as well.

Te llamo cuando se me pegue la regalada gana
I'll call you when I damn well feel like it

Haces lo que se te pega la puta gana

You do whatever the f@ck you feel like

And that's it.  Before I let you go, don't forget to read my post on ganas (¿Tienes ganas?) because it will help you get more a complete understanding of the word and the concept.

¡Hasta la próxima!