Lesson 47: The normalization of でも and だって
だって is similar to でも. Review Lesson 24 if needed. The feeling here is to go against something, or quote something, or give something a reason, which basically means it has a general explanatory tone. There's an unspeakable intuition here.
だって、ほんとに可愛いのに But like, even though it really is cute.
Sometimes だって acts like a particle. It means something similar to でも in these situations, though context can make it mean "also".
子供だって出来る Even a kid can do it.
だって is colloquial. When you attach でも directly to a noun, strange things can happen. This でも has a different nuance than the conjunction.
いぬでもいいです
Even a dog is fine.
When an interrogative like 何 is buried inside a phrase conjugated to ても, it ends up acting like the above. In fact, this calls back to when we learned about でも turning interrogatives into "any X" words. Polarity is responsible.
何食べても美味しそう Whatever I eat it seems to taste good.
何でも食べる I eat anything.
Because of polarity, でも as in "even" plays strangely with negatives.
Sometimes, like in volitional or imperative statements, でも can mark something vague that can be substituted. "Even" is a useful part of the intuition here, but it doesn't literally translate well to english. This is the use of でも that you have to be careful about when you consider the "even" meaning.
お茶でも飲みませんか
Would you like to drink tea or the likes?
Would you like to drink some tea?
To review the many basic uses of ても/でも:
死んでも死なない I don't die even if I die.
いぬでもいいです Even a dog is fine.
何食べても美味しそう Whatever I eat it seems to taste good.
お茶でも飲みませんか Would you like to drink tea or the likes?
Remember, these are all different and overlap with だって at least a little.