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What is a good translation for the word anyway with the meaning of getting back to a previously interrupted subject?

Say you're talking about something, then you go off on some tangent. Usually when getting back to the original subject from the tangent, you introduce this with anyway.

3 Answers 3

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Ĉiuokaze ("in any case") eble uziĝas tiasence.

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You can use either "ĉiuokaze" or "ĉiukaze" for saying "anyway". The difference between them comes from the difference between the two words "okazo" and "kazo", which can both be used to translate the English word "case", even though they are not perfect synonyms in Esperanto. For details about the difference between "okazo" and "kazo", you can read my article at Lingva Kritiko about these words.

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Other than ĉiuokaze/ĉiukaze, I think iel ajn can be used too.

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    I am not sure whether that works in this particular context. Do you have a reference where it is used in this way? To me iel ajn seems to be a correct translation for ‘any way’ (with space!), which would mean “in any which way”. Sep 12, 2016 at 19:25
  • Sorry, I have no reference. I just think it was worth adding since “ĉiuokaze” is kind of a literal translation too (= “in all cases”), as in “in any which way, this doesn't matter, let's go back to the main subject” / “in all cases, this doesn't matter, let's go back to the main subject”.
    – marcus
    Sep 12, 2016 at 19:32
  • I see! I actually find iel ajn a more obvious literal translation that doesn't quite fit as well as ĉiu(o)kaze! In Dutch we say “hoe dan ook” for ‘anyway’ in the sense described in the question, which precisely translates to kiel ajn. Hence it sounds a bit odd to me :p. Sep 12, 2016 at 19:35

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