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「けれども」と「けど」と「けれど」はいったいどう違うんですか。「けれども」はテレビ番組でよく使われているが、「けれども」は「けれど」より丁寧ですか。

English translation: What exactly do 「けれども」 and 「けど」 and 「けれど」 mean? They often use 「けれども」 on TV programs, but is 「けれども」 more polite than 「けれど」?

Questioner
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Ken Li
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    My understanding is that this site is for English speakers learning Japanese. So while I felt that the original question was in simple enough Japanese to be good practice for learners of a certain level, we shouldn't exclude lower level learners who might also benefit from the question. Thus I edited the question to provide an English translation. I hope that is acceptable. – Questioner Jul 16 '11 at 03:50
  • @Dave Sounds good to me – Ken Li Jul 16 '11 at 05:55

3 Answers3

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けど is short for けれど, and hence, is colloquial and less polite. けれども has も 'even' added somewhat redundantly. I don't see clear differences between けれど and けれども. The difference among the three may be parallel to the difference among English though, although, and even though. So if a native English speaker can tell the difference among them, it may be a clue for telling the difference for the Japanese words.

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    The English examples you give here are perfectly interchangeable, just as けれども and its variants are (ignoring politeness levels). Also, けども does pop up occasionally, but the infrequency with which I hear it leads me to believe it is more dialectical than standard. – Derek Schaab Jul 15 '11 at 23:54
  • @sawa, @Derek: けど is short for けれど? Really? You guys just blew my mind. I never knew that. I always thought けど was it's own thing, and use it a lot, especially in the form だけど, or　ですけど when connecting sentences (as in "this, but that"). Can I say ですけれど？　Is だけれど silly because けれど is more formal than だ？ – Questioner Jul 16 '11 at 03:46
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    @Dave M G: Yes. ですけど, ですけれど, and ですけれども are semantically equivalent, as are だけど, だけれど, and だけれども. The usual rule of "longer = more polite" applies. – Derek Schaab Jul 16 '11 at 14:31
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けれど is 98% used only in writings.
It’s slightly more polite than けど, though, it sounds awkward if you use it in conversations.

For example, if you want to say “I’d like to visit Japan but I’m too busy”,
you would say “日本にはいきたいけど、忙しすぎる。" in a conversation with your friend whereas you would write “日本には行きたいけれど、忙し過ぎるんです。” in your blog, which should be a little more polite.

けれども is definitely more polite than these two, and is used in both speakings and writings.

けれども can be used for someone like your customers or boss, but not for presidents or priests. For those people or in a formal situation where you should be very polite (not necessarily with priests but with people you have to be polite to), “ですが“ is usually used instead.

As for the levels of politeness,
けど(informal)<けれど(only in writings)<けれども(polite/formal)<ですが(very polite/formal)

Kana
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The difference lies in how polite they are. The longer the word, the more polite it is.

The shorter a word, the more curt and impolite it is.

language hacker
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