Difference between 今週の週末でもいい? and 今週の週末はいい?

[Dante404]

What is the difference in nuance between using でも　or は in the next sentences?:

今週の週末でもいい？

今週の週末はいい？

I got several and different replies about this topic, so I don't know what to think about this.

How would you explain the difference? I find myself kind of confused right now.

[dav0919]

I think it's like saying, it's okay this weekend versus it's okay if it's this weekend (among others).

[thegooseking]

Dante404さん、

今週の週末でもいい - Even if it's this weekend, it's fine.
今週の週末はいい - This weekend is fine.

When you have the て-form of a verb + も, it means "Even if [verb]". Well, で is the て-form of the copula です, so でも becomes "even if it is".

いい can (and often does) act on its own as a clause, and expresses the other part of this thought: "it's fine". In fact, you often see て-form + もいい meaning "it's okay to..." (literally "Even if you [verb], it's okay"). Since です isn't really a 'doing' word, we can't translate it as "it's okay to..." though, so we fall back on "even if it is ... it's fine".

でも can also mean 'but', but I it's normally used at the beginning of a sentence to indicate that this one will contrast with the previous one. Maybe it's better to think of it as meaning 'however'.

小狼

[community.japanese]

小狼さん、dav0919さん、
こんにちは。
Dante404さんを助けてくださってどうもありがとうございます。

Dante404　さん、
Konnichiwa.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us again.
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com