48970
> 気になってはいても、誰もそのことには触れていない。

I guess its something along the lines of

(we) were concerned but no one touched on the subject.

How does 気になってはいても work and how does it differ from 気になっても?

thanks
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T18:44:40.133
48966
2017-07-02T20:38:00.840
2017-07-02T19:05:06.177
3295
22187
question
grammar particle-は
Structure behind 気になってはいても
There are two differences between 気になってはいても and 気になっても:

  * The use of は, which is a contrast maker here. Here the contrast is made between 気になる and 触れない. 気になって **は** いても is interchangeable with 気に **は** なっていても. This は is grammatically optional, but dropping it would make this sentence sound unnatural.
  * The use of ている, which indicates this phrase refers to something actually ongoing.

ても is translated as "if" or "though/although" depending on the context (see
[this question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/13409/5010)), but it's
"though" in this case. (i.e., the phrase means roughly the same thing as
気にはなっているが.)

So the sentence is translated as:

> Even though we were concerned, no one has touched on the subject.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-02T20:38:00.840
48970
2017-07-02T20:38:00.840
5010
48966
answer