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I am getting a bit confused with the multiple uses of でも. Permission, even if, without doing, etc.

I have the following 2 sentences to translate. Note - these sentences might not be valid

  1. わからないでも言って下さい
    Please say it without understanding.
  1. 二時間おきでもいいです
    Even every 3 hours is okay.

Are these sentences valid, and if so, are my translations correct?

Eddie Kal
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Snowy Coder Girl
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    わからないでも >> Maybe you mean わからなくても (even if you don't understand)? –  May 07 '14 at 06:29
  • @Chocolate - nope. As mentioned, the sentences might not be valid. – Snowy Coder Girl May 07 '14 at 16:40
  • Hmm.. I think "Please say it without understanding" would literally translate to "分からないまま言って下さい" (I can't think of any context where you'd say this, though) –  May 09 '14 at 16:26

3 Answers3

1

There is two ways I can see for your first sentence. First you could write it:

わからない。でも、言って下さい

In this case you would separate it in two sentences meaning: "I don't understand. But say it"

In which case, it is the closest if I try to not change your japanese sentence. If I go the other way around by trying to not change your english translation, I find it better to say:

わからなくても言って下さい

On your second sentence, few changes ought to be made. If what you want to say in english is "Even every 3 hours is okay", I would rather say it this way in Japanese:

[毎三時間]{まいさんじかん}でもいいです。

Eddie Kal
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Yakobu
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    「毎三時間」は「まいさんじかん」ですか。(三[時間]{じかん}[毎]{ごと}じゃなく？) –  May 09 '14 at 16:25
  • 「毎三時間」は「まいさんじかん」です。 What you wrote in bracket is 「さんじかんまい」 which unfortunately does not make much sense. – Yakobu May 13 '14 at 18:44
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    I didn't write さんじかんまい. I wrote さんじかんごと 。 –  May 14 '14 at 05:04
  • 参考までに・・・　http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11195/what-is-the-difference-between-%E3%81%94%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AB-and-%E3%81%8A%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AB/11201#11201 –  May 14 '14 at 05:08
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Both of your sentences are valid, but the meaning are not exact what you think them to be.

わからないでも言って下さい
Please say it without understanding.❌
Please say it even if you don't understand.⭕️

The second sentence is good, except that you might have mixed up 2 and 3.

でも should be considered as で + the particle も meaning "even/also". In the above sentences, わからないで is a whole word, aka the te-form of　わからない. So it's わからないで + も. The second sentence, the te-form of 二時間おき is 二時間おきで(the te-form of nouns and な-adjectives), and the sentence is 二時間おきで + も.

Since も means "also/even", わからないで + も is literally "even if not understand". 二時間おきでもいいです is literally "even if every two hours, is good(いいです)".

Sometimes you see でも at beginning of sentences meaning "but", but that's just short for それでも, literally meaning "even if that", where it's それで + も, それで being the te-form of それ.

でも、俺は行かない.
But I will not go.
(Literal) Even if that, I will not go.

Similarly, sometimes you see sentences begin with では, or だから, or だけど, etc, they are all contractions of それでは, それだから and それだけど.

I'm not going to explain what is te-form or how it's used here in detail, because that will make this answer way too long, and there are already lots of resources dedicated to it online. But in short, you need the te-form when connecting a clause to は or も

全部食べるもいい ❌ 全部食べてもいい　⭕️
行かないはダメ ❌　行かなくてはダメ ⭕️

dvx2718
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  • I'm having trouble with thinking of わからないで as the て-form of わかない because 五段 verbs that end in く should have いて as the suffix of their て-form so it should be わからないて. If 無い is simply an exception to the rule that is fine but if this is true for all い-adjectives then this view is both wrong in my opinion and destructive to the understanding of how て-form is constructed. The same applies to what you say about それでも - now pronouns get て-form as well? That is even more destructive. – Uri Greenberg Jul 01 '23 at 12:59
  • And by that logic the それだ in それだから is the た-form of それ and not それ + copula (だ) + から. – Uri Greenberg Jul 01 '23 at 13:10
  • @UriGreenberg I don't know if it's you that's downvoted, but a simple search on Google would reveal that なくて and ないで are the two valid te-forms of negative verbs, and わからないて is simply not a thing. See this – dvx2718 Jul 01 '23 at 13:35
  • As for だから, から and けど (and some others) when used as conjunction requires the 終止形, therefore for nouns and na-adjectives you'd use だ. When using は and も though, you cannot use the 終止形 but the te-form. – dvx2718 Jul 01 '23 at 13:36
  • By the way, you say "五段 verbs that end in く should have いて as the suffix of their て-form", that's only valid for the positive tense, when in negative, the te-form is either -なくて or -ないで. – dvx2718 Jul 01 '23 at 13:40
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Both of your sentences are invalid.

Darius Jahandarie
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