Spanish word of the week: igual

This week’s Spanish word of the week is the adverb igual.

You can listen to the pronunciation of igual in the audio clip below:

Colloquially, the adverb igual can mean maybe:

Igual no lo saben. Maybe they don’t know.

Igual ha salido. She may have gone out. 

And in South America, especially in countries in the south such as Argentina and Chile, it can mean anyway:

Igual voy, quieras o no. I’m going whether you want me to or not.

The adverb igual has other interesting uses. If you really don’t mind about something, you can use the phrase me da igual or me es igual:

Me da igual hoy o mañana. or Me es igual hoy o mañana. Today or tomorrow, I don’t mind.

—¿Cuál prefieres? —Me da igual, uno cualquiera. “Which one do you prefer?” — “It doesn’t matter, any one (will do).”

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