Spanish word of the week: caso

This week’s Spanish word of the week is caso.

Caso is a noun that means case.

To hear how caso is pronounced, you can click the audio icon below: 

Caso is a frequent word which comes into a lot of idiomatic phrases. Here we’ll look at some of them.

First of all, its basic meaning, case:

En casos así es mejor callarse. In cases like this it’s better to keep quiet.

un caso de corrupción a pequeña escala a case of corruption on a small scale

In its basic meaning of case you use caso in some common phrases to talk about what might happen:

En ese caso, no voy a asistir. In that case, I’m not going to go.

En caso de accidente, rómpase el vidrio. In the event of an accident, break the glass.

Notice that when talking about a possible event with en caso de que — in case — you need to put the following verb in the subjunctive:

en caso de que algo salga mal in case something goes wrong

en caso de que lo necesites in case you need it

Caso is often used in the phrase hacer caso a which means to pay attention to or to take notice of somebody or something. It’s very often used in the negative:

No me hacen caso. They don’t pay any attention to me.

No hizo mucho caso de lo que le dije. She didn’t take much notice of what I told her or She didn’t pay much attention to what I told her.

When used in the affirmative, it can mean to listen to what someone is saying:

Hazle caso, que ella tiene más experiencia que tú. Listen to her, she has more experience than you.

Come back next week to read about our next Spanish word of the week!