What does acaso mean?

Question

This seems like a word with many meanings. Can anyone please help me to get a handle on it.

How do you use it the most?

Answer 1

I find the examples in the dictionary adequate, but I'll give you a couple examples.

eg: "¿Acaso no te advertí de que no confiaras en él?". This literally means: "Perhaps I didn't warn you that you shouldn't trust him?, but it means "Didn't I warn you.. ?"

'Acaso' is also used very often in this 'locución adverbial': 'por si acaso'.

eg: "Yo por si acaso no me voy a pronunciar" > "I won't say anything just in case"

Ole, aquí hay tres españoles contestando, cada uno desde una esquina de la piel de toro :) - cogumela, Nov 1, 2010

Nos falta Heidi. - cogumela, Nov 1, 2010

Gracias Bill :) - Kiwi-Girl, Nov 1, 2010

I don't understand what 'acaso' adds to the example "didn't I warn you . . ?" How is it different than "No te advertí . . ."? - kimmeister, Feb 11, 2011

Then what do you think the "perhaps" adds in "Perhaps, I didn't ..." It "softens" the statement and makes it more polite. - samdie, Oct 2, 2011

Answer 2

Sorry, but I can say anything better than appairs in wordreference.com

Sin embargo, añado una frase hecha que es un sinónimo simpático de "por si acaso": "por si las moscas". The origen is the need of covering the food because the flies (hygiene).

Please correct my poor english

Thanx Roberto :) That's a great idiom! for your English well done, just a couple of suggestions. I 'can't' add/say anything better /appears / origin / because 'of'. And your English is not poor at all - keep up the good work :) - Kiwi-Girl, Nov 1, 2010

Thank you! - RobertoSpain, Nov 2, 2010

Answer 3

Yes, I can add

Si acaso = in any case

No pienso casarme ahora, si acaso lo haré cuando esté enamorada.

Gracias Laura :) - Kiwi-Girl, Nov 1, 2010

Pero te casaste recientemente ¿no? - samdie, Oct 2, 2011

Answer 4

Acaso means, literally, perchance.

Lovely word. Should be used more often. - samdie, Oct 2, 2011

Answer 5

I've always thought about si acaso like if any...

Answer 6

Hi Kiwi Girl! Acaso is a very common word. Most of the time it's refering to a past event, or a future event which is slighty probable.

For example, a mother say to her child "¿Acaso no te dije que limpies tu cuarto?". She's almost sure that she has say it in the past, maybe one or two hour ago, but she knows she told him.

...

"Está un poco nublado, me llevo un paraguas por si acaso." (por si acaso llueve) Here I don't know wheter it's going to rain or not, but to avoid a problem I'll take my umbrella. Maybe it's 90% that's not going to rain, but I'll take it to be sure!

,,,

Now I realized that this is a very old question Well, too late, so I'm goint to answer anyway

Answer 7

acaso as a noun means chance. as an adverb it means by chance or perhaps.

I never heard acaso like a noun. Por si acaso is an adverb. Thanks - RobertoSpain, Nov 1, 2010

"Por si acaso" es una locución adverbial, pero está construida a partir de la palabra "acaso", que también es un sustantivo. En el lenguaje moderno está en desuso como tal, pero en la literatura puedes encontrar ejemplos (como 'A cada paso un acaso..') - bill1111, Nov 1, 2010

Gracias a todos :) - Kiwi-Girl, Nov 1, 2010

Answer 8

So basically I'm thinking I can look at it like:

"is it a case of?" or "it is a case of"