nihongo wo benkyou shitai

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] も
日本語：	[い adjective] くても
日本語：	[な adjective] でも
日本語：	[noun] でも
English:	Even if...

Recently we had a look at the use of でも after nouns where it could be used to say things like even such-and-such or so-and-so or whatever. Today we'll look at another use of でも after nouns as well as it's use after adjectives and verbs. In such circumstances, it's English translation is even if...

There's not an awful lot to discuss on this point, other than to look at the conjugation. After verbs in base 6 (ーて form) add も. With adjectives, we also move them into ーて form, so we drop the い in い-adjectives and add くても whilst the な in な-adjectives becomes で followed by も. With nouns, the です becomes で followed by も.

Let's look at some examples!

English:	Even if I study everyday, my Japanese doesn't improve.
Jenglish:	[everyday][study][even if],[Japanese][doesn't improve]
日本語：	毎日勉強しても、日本語を上達しないでしまう。

NOTE: 23/06/2007 - Actually, after re-reading my post on しまう and the comments, I think that it's use here may not be correct...

English:	Even if you take care when drinking, you always have a hangover next day.
Jenglish:	[drinking][when][take care][even if],[next day][always][hangover][have]
日本語：	飲むの時は注意しても、翌日にいつも二日酔いがある。

It's also worth noting that ても/でも can be used with interrogatives. In this case it's takes on the meaning akin to no matter.... The below example is taken from Jim Breen's web site:

運転する時はいくら注意しても注意しすぎることはない。

If we break this down literally, we get:

[when driving] [how much] [take care + even if] [take care + too much] [is not]

The combination of the interrogative (in this case how much) and ても can be translated as no matter how much. So the best translation I have is No matter how much you take car when driving, it not too much.

じゃあ、インタネットで例文を探そう！

一番目例文：

Here's an example from this web site.

日本語：	「ただ乗り」されてもグーグルのトラフィックは必要？--ジレンマに悩む新聞業界
Jenglish:	[free ride] [to do + passive + even if] [Google traffic] [TP] [necessary?] [dilemma] [DP] [to be worried] [newspaper industry] [world]

Well, a bit demoralising to be honest. I had a nice start on this, but the first bit totally threw me. ただ乗り means 'free ride' but then we get される. The obvious translation to 'to do free rides' but that doesn't really make sense. 30 minutes later, I'm still no clearer so I'm leaving my translation as Even if it's free access, is Google's traffic necessary? The dilemma that the world of the newspaper industry worries about. Please help!!!

二番目例文：

Well, taken from this web site this example looks like the title of a drama.

日本語：	日が暮れても彼女と歩いてた
Jenglish:	[day] [SM] [to get dark + even if] [her] [with] [to walk (past progressive)]

Let's take a risk and not think about this one too much: My first thought is I walked with her, even if the day got dark. I'm guessing that 日が暮れる is idiomatic and translates to something like 'things got tough'. Come to think of it 彼女と歩いていた is probably also idiomatic and means 'I stayed with her' or something. Any ideas?

またね・・・