Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting Maggie’s room. Feel free to leave a message (Even just say Hello! 👋 ) I don’t do translations, check your long writing or help your homework for school here but I can answer one or two simple Japanese questions. Love you all! 🐶❤️
7 Comments
先生、あけおめ～！
Lately, I’ve been coming across an interesting usage of the word も as I’m reading. Here’s an example:
「先輩をじっと見るも、その表情は読めない。」
なんとなくI understand the sentence. I can tell it means “I’m looking right at him, yet I can’t read his expression,” or maybe “Even though I look straight at him, I can’t read his expression.”
But if I were to translate those sentences from English to Japanese, I’d use ～のに, or maybe even ～ても if I had to use も.
「先輩をじっと見ても、その表情は読めない。」
That sounds much better to me. Am I right in assuming that [verb (dict form)] + も is the same as [verb (てform)] + も？ If so, is this only a literary expression? Because I’ve never heard it spoken in this way before. Is there a difference in nuance? Would you be able to provide example sentences?
Thank you!
Hi Sora
元気でしたか？
You are right. 見るも is a literary / written expression.
Verb (dictionary form) + も means “though / yet / nevertheless.”
It is an expression you only see in novels or essays, or hear in story narration.
You don’t see or hear this in everyday speech.
It is often followed by a negative form (～ない).
As you said, you can rephrase it as:
→ A) 先輩をじっと見ても、その表情は読めない。 (more conversational)
～ても can be used when you are making an assumption, while verb (dictionary form) + も is used to state what actually happened.
You can rephrase it with
→ B) 先輩をじっと見るが、その表情は読めない。 (slightly more formal than A)
I’ll give you more example of this form.
Ex. よく考えてみるも答えは出なかった。
(→ よく考えてみたが、答えは出なかった。)
= I thought about it carefully, but no answer came.
Ex. 叔父に相談に行くも家には誰もいなかった。
(→叔父に相談に行ったが家には誰もいなかった。）
= I went to consult my uncle, yet there was no one at home.
はい、元気です！
いつも説明ありがとうございます🥰
どういたしまして、Sora🩷
良いお年を！
明けましておめでとうございます！
ここにはまだ来年にならなくて日本にはもう元日が来たので、どちらを言ってもふさわしいですね？
どんなに私の日本語が上達しても、いつもこの素晴らしいサイトに参考しに戻ります。
レッスンだけでなく、他の来ている学習者さんの質問もマギー先生の回答も役に立ちます。
じゃあ、みなさん今年もよろしくお願いします。
Happy new year everyone!
Hi Terry!
明けましておめでとうございます！
Terryや皆さんにとって新しい年が素晴らしい年となりますように🙏
是非、2026年もまたこのサイトに来てくださいね。
私も新しいレッスンを作るのを楽しみにしています！☺️
明けましておめでとうございます！Happy New Year, everyone!