Echándole ganas

Question

I am told this means "give me the strength" like to continue working or whatever. So I assume the root form is "echarle (las) ganas) but I am told by my coworkers that they use it in the "echándole ganas" form almost exclusively but it doesn't have a "ing" format but rather just means "give me strength". Can anyone confirm this? Gracias.

Answer 1

That's a shortened way of estoy echándole ganas present progressive, which means "I'm doing my best effort, I'm trying to finish soon..."

Oh I see, for some reason estoy did not occur to me with that. - jeezzle, Dec 31, 2010

Answer 2

My hubby tells me 'échale ganas' a lot... Haha.

He also gave another translation: Do it like you mean it.

Answer 3

You can also ask: échale ganas, or ponele ganas... like please, do an effort to help me... Another expression is: ponerse las pilas (put the batterys on), put some energy to the work you are doing...