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.
>

>   2. 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?
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2014-05-07T04:32:06.980
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2022-01-28T21:18:29.817
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question
meaning translation
The usage of でも
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。
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2014-05-08T17:23:58.657
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answer
Both of your sentences are invalid.
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2014-05-08T19:38:21.393
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answer
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 ⭕️
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2023-06-23T04:06:13.323
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answer