Podría ser vs sería.

Question

A native Spanish speaker has asked if "I want" es igual a "busco" and I want to explain that it could/would be equal only in certain contexts, such as asking for something in a store. I wrote: "En una tienda 'I want' podría ser igual a 'Estoy buscando,'" but then I wondered if this was an incorrect language transfer from English. So, my question is, which would be correct/most common for this sentence?

Podría ser igual a (Could be equal to)

Podría igual [a] (Could equal)

Sería igual [a] (Would [be] equal [to])

Or perhaps another alternative altogether?

Answer 1

Podría igual [a] (Could equal)

This is not correct because igual is an adjective or adverb.

The verb igualar would not work in this case either because it means "to make things equal" or "to treat people in the same way".

Good eyes! Can't believe I didn't see that! - Ramonaspiker, Sep 24, 2016

Of course. Gracias Julian. Which of the other two is better/more common and is the "a" required with "Sería igual [a]"? - jellonz, Sep 25, 2016

Both are common and require the "a" after "igual" - 005faa61, Sep 28, 2016

Answer 2

I like all of them! I would say: "En la tienda, "I want" puede ser igual a "Estoy buscando". In a store, "I want..." can be the same as/ equal to "I'm looking..."

Gracias Ramona. I wanted to get some sense of the conditional in there, but it would be interesting to see if native speakers would prefer the simple present in this situation. - jellonz, Sep 24, 2016

You can also make it shorter by saying "En la tienda, "I want" es igual a "estoy buscando" too. A lot of different ways are possible! - Ramonaspiker, Sep 24, 2016