whatever

The word "whatever" generally means "anything, "any amount," or "no matter what."

• You can have whatever you want. (You can have anything.)
• Just pay me whatever you think the car is worth. (Pay me any amount of money.)
• Whatever you do, don’t stop learning English. (Don’t stop learning English no matter what.)
• Do whatever he says. (Do anything he says no matter what.)

As you can see from the examples above, the word "whatever" is often followed by a subject and a verb to form a clause, but that’s not always necessary:

• You can have whatever.
• We’ll play golf today whatever the weather.
• Whatever the reason, she doesn’t want to go to the party.

You can also use "whatever" to express unhappiness or dissatisfaction regarding a situation. Young people often use this word in this manner:

• My boss told me my job performance has to improve and I was like, "whatever."
• Okay, I’ll take out the garbage. Whatever.
• Oh, whatever. I don’t care.
• Whatever!

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Published on July 27, 2013