そこが可愛いとこでもあるんだけどね

Question

It is my first time posting anything on a language forum, and i've come to it after searching all over the internet for the past hour to find an answer to this grammar question. So I hope you guys can help me with this.

The phrase is : そこが可愛いとこでもあるんだけどね

I pretty much easily understand the meaning of the sentence, but there is a grammatical point that I can't find/don't seem to be able to explain.

It is the use of でも in that phrase

I understand the first part of the phrase そこが可愛いとこ this way :

-そこ = there (place) -が = が -可愛いとこ=可愛いところ= cute "places" = cute sides, cute features

So そこが可愛いとこがある would be = There are cute features in that place = You have cute features

But it gets trickier with the rest of the sentence でもあるんだけどね

I can understand あるんだけどね that is a contraction of あるのですけどね

My question particularly points on the でも

---> What is it ? is a classic でも (but, something like) or is it a contraction of です + も or some other grammar point I can't comprehend.

If I would be to rephrase the phrase with my japanese comprehension I would say:

そこが可愛いとこがあるんだけどね

This one I can understand grammaticaly even though I think the original one, if I understand the meaning clearly even though I can't understand the grammar, sounds actually better.

So if anyone could explain why you would put でも there, and what is its grammatical meaning, that would be awesome.

Answer 1

Practically, you can think でもある is 'である + も', literally translating to 'is also...' で is a contracted にて according to the linked entry.

As for そこ, it refers to the particular characteristics of the person being talked about and とこ is like 'features' as you understand.

So the sentence is 'That characteristics is also the cute features/points (of the person)'. 'Also' here indicates that the characteristics/behavior is not totally positive, which should be understood by the context.

Answer 2

The grammar explained in the other answer is on point. However, the meaning of "also" can be better understood by thinking about it "as well as", "as far as" or "even". These may seem arbitrary they all mean "also" but with added connotations.

I would translate it as (but I may be wrong considering the lack of context)

そこが可愛いとこでもあるんだけどね

Literally:

That exists also as a cute feature.

Idiomatically:

That is also his cute feature.

• I previously thought that this translated as "He even got some cute features". Considering それ is the subject, it should be obvious.

---

Now, the most important thing:

I can understand あるんだけどね that is a contraction of あるのですけどね

あるんだけどね is a contraction of あるのだけどね. You should not think of です/ます forms as the "original" forms (As other comments pointed out です may be itself another contraction of で[はありま]す and だ would be である). It is interesting to see how this assumption made you guess wrong here:

---> What is it ? is a classic でも (but, something like) or is it a contraction of です + も or some other grammar point I can't comprehend.

It's really common to find で and not knowing what it means. A common checklist would be:

• で as in である
• で as the て form of だ
• で as the particle of location/means/etc