5.5 The Conjunction でも (demo)

The conjunction でも (demo) in Japanese means ‘but’ or ‘however’. It is used to express a contrast between two ideas or to introduce a contrasting thought. It is used to link two contrasting sentences, but it cannot be used to link nouns or other non-sentential elements.

For example, you could use でも to connect two contrasting sentences, such as ‘I like sashimi’ and ‘I don’t like wasabi’ in Japanese. The sentence would be:

さしみが好（す）きです。でも、わさびは好きじゃないです。

Sashimi ga suki desu. Demo, wasabi wa suki janai desu.

I like sashimi, but I don’t like wasabi.

Here, でも is used to connect the contrasting ideas of liking sashimi but not liking wasabi.

Just a quick note: If you are wondering about when to use the particles は and が with the adjectives 好（す）き（な）and 嫌（きら）い（な）, you will find the explanation in Module 3.3.