たって Japanese Grammar Lesson
Grammar Type: Conjunction
Essential Meaning: Even if…
Construction:
- Verb informal past + って
- E.g. 話したって [Even if X speaks]
- E.g. 食べたって [Even if X eats]
- い-Adjective Stem + くたって
- E.g. 高くたって [Even if X is expensive]
- (な-Adjective Stem / Noun) + だっ(たっ)て
- E.g. 静かだっ(たっ)て [Even if X is quiet]
- E.g. 先生だっ(たっ)て [Even if X is a teacher]
Notes:
- たって is a casual, conversational expression (i.e. not typically used in writing) and expresses the idea of “Even if X, Y“. With たって, the subjunctive / hypothetical nature of the sentence is emphasized, which gives the sentence an emotive feeling.
- E.g. お金があったって車は買いたくない。[Even if I had money, I wouldn’t want to buy a car.]
- どんなに can be prefixed to sentences with たって to mean “No matter how“.
- E.g. どんなに考えたって分からないよ。[No matter hard you think, you won’t understand.]
- E.g. どんなに寒くたって大丈夫です。[No matter how cold it is, it’s no problem.]
- たって can be interchanged with ても / でも (Even If). The difference is that ても / でも (Even If) is less emotive and less colloquial than たって and can be used in writing.
- E.g. お金があっても車は買いたくない。[Even if I had money, I wouldn’t want to buy a car.]
- E.g. お金があったって車は買いたくない。[Even if I had money, I wouldn’t want to buy a car.] The difference between this sentence and the previous sentence is very slight.
Example Sentences:
あの人には話したって分からない。[Even if I told that person, he wouldn’t understand.]
僕はその切符を高くたって買う。[Even if that ticket is expensive, I will buy it.]
お金があったって車は買いたくない。[Even if I had money, I wouldn’t want to buy a car.]
きたなくたってかまいません。[Even if it’s dirty, I don’t mind.]
遠くて不便だってマイホームならかまいません。[Even if it’s far away and inconvenient, I wouldn’t mind as long as it’s my home.]
どんなにいい先生だってときどき間違います。[No matter how good a teacher one is, one sometimes makes mistakes.]
WILD Examples:
***YouTube videos may be region-locked depending on your country of origin. If you experience issues, please try using a VPN set to a United States IP address.***