愿望(yuàn wàng) - wish, desire in Mandarin

愿望 (yuàn wàng) is a wish or a desire held over time: the thing you want life to deliver. It covers the wish you make over birthday candles, a parent's hope for a child, and the quiet ambition someone carries for years.

It pairs with 实现 (to realise) and 满足 (to satisfy), so 实现愿望 is to see a wish come true. 许愿望 or simply 许愿 is to make a wish. Sizes work as you would expect: 最大的愿望, 小小的愿望.

The trap is that 愿望 is only ever a noun. English lets you say "I wish you were here", where the verb does the work, but Chinese cannot bolt a clause onto 愿望. For that you need the verb 希望: 我希望你在这里. Say 我愿望你在这里 and you have used a noun as a verb, which lands the way "I desire-noun you here" would in English.