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Why is the verb Desear, which means “to wish”, more common in Spanish than in English? Let’s learn how to use Desear, and we’ll also talk about the frequently-used verb Jurar.
¡Te lo juro!
Intro: Join us on a rigorous, step-by-step journey to fluency. I’m Timothy and this is LearnCraft Spanish.
Today we’re going to learn two verbs that tend to take both direct and indirect objects. Some verbs in Spanish tend to take only direct objects, for example Querer and Creer. You want something, or you believe something, but you don’t want something to a person or believe something to a person; that doesn’t make sense. There are other verbs that tend to take only indirect objects, for example Importar and Gustar. Something is important to someone or pleasing to someone, but these verbs never take a direct object.
Other verbs tend to take both direct and indirect objects. The most common are Hacer, Decir, and Dar. You can do something for someone, you can say something to someone, and you can give something to someone. To review how to do this, let’s get some practice with a few sentences that involve both direct and indirect objects.
That’s why I did her a favor.
Por eso le hice un favor.
I told it to you in the living room.
Te lo dije en la sala.
They gave it to me without a problem.
Me lo dieron sin problema.
I want to give it to my friends(f).
Se lo quiero dar a mis amigas.
Let’s learn a couple more verbs that behave this way. We’ll start with the verb Desear, which means “to wish”. Here’s a typical example:
We wish you(plural) a merry christmas.
Les deseamos una feliz navidad.
So you can wish something for someone. The person is the recipient or the indirect object, and what you wish them is the direct object. Try it yourself in this next example, using a formal voice:
I wish you(formal) a very good day.
Le deseo un día muy bueno.
Now, Desear is also used simply with direct objects, especially in formal contexts. For example:
I wish to speak with your boss.
Deseo hablar con tu jefe.
So here, the direct object is an infinitive. Remember that infinitives can be treated as nouns. Try it yourself in this next example:
She wished to be the best.
Ella deseaba ser la mejor.
You can also wish for a simple noun. Here’s an example:
He wishes for a bigger house.
Él desea una casa más grande.
So in English we say “wish for”, as in “he wishes for a bigger house”, but the Spanish is simply to “wish” a bigger house.
Let’s get some practice with Desear. It’s conjugated exactly like Hablar, so you should be able to predict the Spanish.
We wish her the best.
Le deseamos lo mejor.
We didn’t wish for anything for the new year.
No deseamos nada para el nuevo año.
He wants me to wish for a new house.
Quiere que yo desee una nueva casa.
I wished it was more fun.
Deseaba que fuera más divertido.
What do you wish for for your birthday?
¿Qué deseas para tu cumpleaños?
This is hell and I wish to get out.
Esto es un infierno y deseo salir.
They wish to have more space in the living room.
Desean tener más espacio en la sala.
I’d wish to be in that area.
Desearía estar en esa zona.
I’ve been wishing for this for years.
He estado deseando esto por años.
He wishes her a happy birthday.
Él le desea un feliz cumpleaños.
I don’t think he wishes that.
No creo que desee eso.
I was wishing we could go, but I haven’t wished for it in a while.
Deseaba que pudiéramos ir, pero no lo he deseado en un tiempo.
Our next verb is Jurar, which means “to swear” or “to vow”. This is spelled j-u-r-a-r. Jurar. For example:
I didn’t do it, I swear it to you!
¡Yo no lo hice, te lo juro!
So in English, in contexts like this, we more often simply say “I swear”. But Jurar tends to like taking both the direct and the indirect object. Try it yourself in this next example.
He swore it to them yesterday.
Se lo juró ayer.
Now of course, very often, you’ll be spelling out what it is that someone is swearing. In these cases, you’ll use a que phrase, just like you do for the verb Decir. Compare the following two sentences:
He told them that he was there that day.
Les dijo que estuvo allí ese día.
He swore to them that he was there that day.
Les juró que estuvo allí ese día.
So in both cases, the indirect object is les, and the direct object is the phrase que estuvo allí ese día. Try it yourself in this next example, where you’re speaking to a group of people:
I swear to you(plural) that she didn’t do it.
Les juro que ella no lo hizo.
Let’s get some practice with Jurar, which is also conjugated exactly like Hablar.
He swears that the plaza is terrible.
Él jura que la plaza es terrible.
They didn’t swear anything to her.
No le juraron nada.
We swear the ground is fine.
Juramos que el suelo está bien.
I haven’t sworn anything to you.
No te he jurado nada.
You have to swear it to me.
Me lo tienes que jurar.
Do you swear you don’t know?
¿Juras que no lo sabes?
He swore to her that the window was fine.
Le juró que la ventana estaba bien.
They swear that that destination is great.
Juran que ese destino es genial.
I swear the vacation is going to be wonderful.
Juro que las vacaciones van a ser maravillosas.
We didn’t swear that, but you swore it to them.
Nosotros no juramos eso, pero tú se lo juraste.
I swore to my mom I wasn’t going to do anything stupid.
Le juré a mi mamá que no iba a hacer nada estúpido.
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper at LCSPodcast.com/231. We’ve obviously covered a LOT on this show in these first 231 episodes. If you want to polish anything in particular, make sure to go to LCSPodcast.com and check out our coaching and membership options. If you join us, you can not only get personalized coaching to help you practice everything on this show, step by step, you can also access our quizzing tools to practice everything we’ve learned on the show. You’ll even be able to dive into specifics. For example, maybe you want to work on listening comprehension of certain verbs, or get better at saying numbers quickly. We have tools and resources to help you get fine-tuned practice with everything we’ve learned on this show.
All right, if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz.
You swore to me this wouldn’t happen again.
Me juraste que esto no pasaría otra vez.
You have to swear to her that you’re going to earn a lot of money.
Le tienes que jurar que vas a ganar mucho dinero.
He hasn’t sworn that to you.
No te ha jurado eso.
He swears I can tell it to him, in order that I wish for something new.
Él jura que puedo decírselo, para que yo desee algo nuevo.
We wish for that site to have a sidewalk.
Deseamos que ese sitio tenga una acera.
We swear that’s the entrance to the building.
Juramos que esa es la entrada del edificio.
I swear to you that you have to go to the second floor.
Te juro que tienes que ir al segundo piso.
They swear this works.
Juran que esto funciona.
If you go in that direction, you’ll find the bridge.
Si vas en esa dirección, encontrarás el puente.
Do you swear this is going to be interesting?
¿Juras que esto va a ser interesante?
He swore to me that the food here is excellent.
Me juró que la comida aquí es excelente.
I’m wishing to get to the exit.
Estoy deseando llegar a la salida.
They wish to have it, so you have to give it to them.
Desean tenerlo, así que tienes que dárselo.
I would wish to be on the road right now.
Desearía estar en la carretera ahora mismo.
He wishes to have it, so give it to him.
Desea tenerlo, así que dáselo.
We swear that that state isn’t a weird place.
Juramos que ese estado no es un lugar raro.
Welcome(m); you can use everything in the house.
Bienvenido; puedes usar todo en la casa.
We wished to be able to tell it to you.
Deseamos poder decírtelo.
(Formal) Tell it to me, I wish to know it.
Dígamelo, deseo saberlo.
She wished to get more money.
Deseaba conseguir más dinero.
They swore they couldn’t tell it to us.
Juraron que no podían decírnoslo.
Do you wish to go to the park?
¿Deseas ir al parque?
I swore I’d have it, so give it to me.
Juré que lo tendría, así que dámelo.
Give it(f) to me, that’s what he wished.
Dámela, eso es lo que él deseaba.
Tell it to me, I have wished to know it for a long time.
Dímelo, he deseado saberlo por mucho tiempo.
I would wish to pay for my house, but it’s impossible.
Desearía pagar mi casa, pero es imposible.
If you aren’t going to tell it to me, tell it to him.
Si no vas a decírmelo, díselo a él.
For more practice with all of this, go to LCSPodcast.com/231.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. The Spanish voice in this episode was our coach Michael Agudelo. Our music was performed by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today at LCSPodcast.com.