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For example in the sentence:

書くだけでいいですか.

chocolate
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Doc.
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  • Oh, sorry. I meant for the example sentence to be: 書くだけでいいですか. Without the mo. So the question is basically, is でいい the same as でもいい. –  Jul 22 '13 at 07:38
  • でいい means just that (それでいい?), でもいい implies asking for permission for sth. that may be troublesome. (You are aware of the side effects? それでもいい?)

    書くだけでいいですか -> All I need to do is to write (eg sth. down) 書くだけでもいいですか -> All I want to do is to write, may I?

     – blutorange Jul 22 '13 at 09:22
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    What is wrong with this question? (why is it downvoted?) – Tim Jul 22 '13 at 13:25
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    I would like to know that too... please explain why the downvote, it is pointless downvoting without further details. – Andry Jul 22 '13 at 13:58

2 Answers2

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The meanings are quite similar, but there's a subtle difference.

Both phrases involve settling for something, or one person making a choice on behalf of another: お昼ごはんはハンバーガーでいい？ "Would a hamburger do for lunch?" Or something is sufficient: そこにおくだけでいいです "Please just put it there [and I'll do the rest.]"

But でもいい has an added sense that there is something better or preferable out there, but you are settling, or asking, for something less. This comes from the use of でも, which has a negative conjunction.

That is, お昼ごはんはハンバーガーでもいい? has a nuance of, "I know you like something else," or perhaps, "I don't know if you like a hamburger or not." Another example would be: 名前を書くだけでもいいですか？ and this would mean something like, "[You want to me to put down my address for this petition, but] would it be OK if I just write my name?"

Questioner
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Kohsuke Kawaguchi
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  • Intonation/emphasis also has an effect here, right? – bright-star Jan 07 '14 at 00:02
  • I corrected the spelling, grammar, and punctuation, which I think should be uncontroversial. Additionally, I couldn't help but also change the formatting a little, mainly highlighting the Japanese text. Only because otherwise there was so much punctuation it was a little hard to read. I hope that's acceptable. – Questioner Jan 11 '14 at 06:35
  • So the も makes it "Would a hamburger do for lunch as well?" (or "also")? – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Oct 30 '15 at 04:17
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I cannot comment yet, but I would just like to add a sidenote to the existing answer by Kawaguchi-san

There is a site that I use for my studies now, and recently I found a very helpful article there on the difference between でいい and がいい

I just thought that this might be a good addition/expansion on the topic

P.S. Also, to understand the nuance, I personally find it helpful to translate も in でもいい as ”even", e.g. これだけでもいいですか？ ＞ Is it OK even if I do just this?

Though, if you draw a parallel with the 'usual' function of も in general and, especially, も/は for amounts (e.g. 百人もいました > There were as many as a hundred people), then a 'more universal' translation would be "as much/as many as", so the example about would translate as "Is it OK if I do just as much as this?"

Interesting, I have not thought about it before I started writing this

Vladimir
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