How to Use ANYWAY

“Anyway” is a very useful word but is often used wrongly, sometimes leading to unintentional rudeness. This article gives hints on how to use and how not to use “anyway”, including contrasts with similar-looking expressions like “by the way” and “(in) any way”.

The general use of “anyway” is to move on from and perhaps dismiss the previous part of the conversation, as in “Let’s just try it anyway” and “Anyway, we were supposed to be talking about…” Those uses and other specific meanings are explained below.

“Anyway” to get (back) to the main topic

Perhaps the simplest meaning/ use of “anyway” is to get back on topic or to get to the main topic, as in “Anyway, what we really need to talk about is…” This makes it the opposite of “by the way”, which is used to start diversions off the topic, as in “By the way, John wants you to phone him later. Anyway, having a look at the agenda,…”

Because this meaning of “anyway” is very clear, it can sound impolite in similar situations like getting down to business after small talk. For example, in “Not too good. My cat died”, “I’m really sorry to hear that. That must be tough. Anyway, we have a lot to get through today, so…”, “anyway” can make it sound like the second speaker thinks the cat dying is unimportant and/ or unnecessarily off topic. It is therefore usually better to use softer transitions words and phrases like (in approximate order of softness) “So,”, “Well”, “Okay” or “Right”. However, “anyway” is perfect when you don’t have to worry about politeness. For instance, you can use it to do the same thing to yourself in “That reminds me of the time when… Anyway, I was supposed to be talking about…”

“Anyway” to mean “despite what has been said”

Another common way of dismissing what has just been said can be seen in “Feel the fear and just do it anyway” and “He never brings me flowers but I love him anyway”. This use is similar to “nonetheless” and “nevertheless” in that it contrasts the two halves of the sentence and also shows which part of the sentence is more important.

“Anyway” to mean “besides”

Examples like “I know you don’t want to meet them, but he probably won’t come. If he does, he won’t bring her anyway” are similar to those in the section above in that they show which side of the argument is stronger. However, in this case the two arguments are not contrasted but are on the same side (like “besides”, and unlike “nevertheless”).

“Anyway” to mean “at the end of the day”

A concluding meaning of “anyway” that relates strongly to the general meaning of dismissing can be seen in “I don’t have an umbrella but it rarely rains anyway” and “I forgot to water the plants” “Most of them are plastic anyway”. This is used to show that the previous thing is unimportant, most often to reassure someone.

“Anyway” to correct or change the last thing that was said

In examples like “He never has breakfast. Not a real breakfast, anyway”, “anyway” has a correcting function, something like “to be precise”, “or at least” or “I mean to say”.

“Anyway” vs “anyhow” and “anyhoo”

“Anyhow” is a more informal version of “Anyway”, and “Anyhoo” is a more informal version of “Anyhow”. Although they are more casual, in the right situation that casualness can make them softer ways of getting back on topic and getting to the main topic, and so sometimes preferable to “anyway”. They mainly have this getting to the main topic meaning of “anyway”, and are rarely used with the other meanings above like “despite what was said”.

“Anyway” vs “by the way”

As mentioned above, these are actually opposites of each other, with “anyway” meaning “to get back on topic” and “by the way” meaning “to go off topic (for a second)”.

“Anyway” vs “any way”

“Any way” has the normal meanings that you would expect from putting those two words together. For example, “any way” means “any method is okay” in “Any way I try to open it, I end up spilling some anyway”, and “any way” means “zero methods” in “It is not useful in any way”. This makes it very different to the single word “anyway”, and means that “any way” and “anyway” cannot replace each other in sentences (without having to substantially rewrite the sentence, anyway).