The whole phrase together means “no matter what [you/I] do…” Without the も it would just mean “what (or how) [you/I] do..”
It’s not really an expression; it’s meaning is transparent from how it’s formed.
This is how the temo-form of all verbs works.
Using it with a verb such as in this case “やっても” simply means “whether you do or not” or “no matter whether you do”, a nuance similar to that. For instance “命令されてもやらない。” would literally mean “No matter whether I’m ordered to, I won’t do it.” but more idiomatically “You can order me, but I won’t do it.”
The interesting thing in this case is when this clause is combined with a wh-word, as in “何” or “どう” or “いつ” or “どこ” that ask an open thing to be filled in, the meaning then is perhaps best explained with examples:
– どうやっても = no matter how you do it/however you do it – いつやっても = no matter when you do it/whenever you do it – 誰がやっても = no matter who does it/whoever does it
So for instance in an actual sentence: “私がモテないのは**どう考えても**お前らが悪い。” for “You lot are to blame for that I’m not popular no matter how I think of it.”
These constructs can get arbitrarily complex, for instance “どんな国に住んでいても” means “no matter the country one lives in” “どんなに大きな台所を持っていても” means “No matter how big a kitchen one owns.”
There is actually one idiom with this phrase “どう見ても”. This literally means “No matter how one looks at it.” but in practice it means “through and through” or something similar. “どう見ても紳士だ” means something like “He’s a gentleman through and through.” or “a gentleman by any measure”, something similar to that.
2 comments
The whole phrase together means “no matter what [you/I] do…” Without the も it would just mean “what (or how) [you/I] do..”
It’s not really an expression; it’s meaning is transparent from how it’s formed.
This is how the temo-form of all verbs works.
Using it with a verb such as in this case “やっても” simply means “whether you do or not” or “no matter whether you do”, a nuance similar to that. For instance “命令されてもやらない。” would literally mean “No matter whether I’m ordered to, I won’t do it.” but more idiomatically “You can order me, but I won’t do it.”
The interesting thing in this case is when this clause is combined with a wh-word, as in “何” or “どう” or “いつ” or “どこ” that ask an open thing to be filled in, the meaning then is perhaps best explained with examples:
– どうやっても = no matter how you do it/however you do it
– いつやっても = no matter when you do it/whenever you do it
– 誰がやっても = no matter who does it/whoever does it
So for instance in an actual sentence: “私がモテないのは**どう考えても**お前らが悪い。” for “You lot are to blame for that I’m not popular no matter how I think of it.”
These constructs can get arbitrarily complex, for instance “どんな国に住んでいても” means “no matter the country one lives in” “どんなに大きな台所を持っていても” means “No matter how big a kitchen one owns.”
There is actually one idiom with this phrase “どう見ても”. This literally means “No matter how one looks at it.” but in practice it means “through and through” or something similar. “どう見ても紳士だ” means something like “He’s a gentleman through and through.” or “a gentleman by any measure”, something similar to that.