Structure
Noun + でも + Suggestion
だれでも - Anyone
なんでも - Anything
どこでも - Anywhere
いつでも - Anytime
Details
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Standard
About でも
でも is one of many adverbial particles in Japanese. These are particles that behave like a regular 助詞 (in that they appear after the words that they are referencing), but their role is a little bit more specific. でも itself has several uses, and the use that we will examine in this grammar point is called 例示. Basically this means 'presenting examples'.
In English, this results in a translation similar to 'even', or 'or something'. To use this structure, simply attach でも to the end of any noun, or pronoun.
When grouped with a standard noun as above, でも is just showing that the noun is an example/suggestion, and that there are other choices/possibilities available. However, when the noun is a word like 誰, どこ, 何, or いつ, the translation becomes much closer to English words like 'anyone', 'anywhere', 'anything', or 'anytime'.
Fun Fact
There is debate among Japanese native speakers about whether でも should be considered its own word, or if it is actually just a combination of the particles で and も (or て and も in the case of verbs, but we will cover that later). As で and も together could be translated as 'even with (A)', it would also be correct to consider it this way.
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スプーンでも缶詰が開く。A can will open, even with a spoon.
Caution
When grouped with 何, the pronunciation will almost always change to なん. This is purely to make なんでも easier to say.
Synonyms
Examples
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どこでもいいよ。
Anywhere is good.
いつでも家に来てください。
Please come to my house anytime.
いつでも電話に出るから。
I will answer the phone anytime.
いつでも洗濯できますよ。
I can do laundry anytime.
お茶でもどう?
How about tea or something?
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Tae Kim
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みんなの日本語 I
Page 134 [CH 21]
[DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
Page 111
Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
Page 102
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でも – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (9 in total)
robnice
I ran into the following sentence and was really thrown by the でも。
100 以上 の 人工 衛星 を 1 台 の ロケット で 打ち上げる こと は 、 世界 でも ほとんど あり ませ ん 。
I came back to bunpro and looked up the grammar point for でも and it confused me even more. I agree with the examples you gave to better explain how でも is actually working with nouns and the interogative words.
hanslim77
isn’t でも also used as ‘but’? at least when connecting 2 clauses (also why sometimes instead of けど or が in reviews when I first started using it, Bunpro flags it as a potential answer (yellow text)
but if it’s used as ‘even’ or ‘anything’, it doesn’t seem to sound right?
MikkaT
Hi,
i started the N5 vocab deck in anime order and でも came up with the translation “but”, which i heard tons of times in several anime. Why is this a meaning in vocab but not at the grammar point and most importantly what are the differences to が and(だ) けど which are described as formal and less formal ways to say “but”?
Thanks in advance
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