と言っても details
write + having said that
kaku to itte mo
having said that; though I say X — walks back the strength of a claim just made
人気と言っても、一部のマニアの間だけだけどね。
ninki to itte mo, ichibu no mania no aida dake da kedo ne.
They call it popular, though that's only among a niche crowd of enthusiasts. casual
引っ越したと言っても、隣の駅に移っただけです。
hikkoshita to itte mo, tonari no eki ni utsutta dake desu.
I say I moved, but I only relocated to the next station over. neutral
- colloquial
- colloquial
Examples
having said that; though I say X — softens or narrows a claim just made
人気と言っても、一部のマニアの間だけだけどね。
ninki to itte mo, ichibu no mania no aida dake da kedo ne.
They call it popular, though that's only among a niche crowd of enthusiasts. casual
引っ越したと言っても、隣の駅に移っただけです。
hikkoshita to itte mo, tonari no eki ni utsutta dake desu.
I say I moved, but I only relocated to the next station over. neutral
業績が回復したと言っても、まだ黒字化には程遠い状況です。
gyouseki ga kaifuku shita to itte mo, mada kurojika ni wa hodotooi joukyou desu.
Though we say performance has recovered, we are still far from returning to profitability. formal
Formation
{V}といってもattaches to dictionary formplain clause + と言ってもattaches to plain clausei-adj + と言っても (忙しいと言っても)attaches to i-adjectivena-adj + だと言ってもattaches to na-adjective{N}といってもattaches to noun{N}だといってもattaches to noun
Variant notes
- っていっても — casual quotative って swapped in for と — everyday chat register.
- っつっても — further clipped from っていっても, carrying the sokuon mid-sentence (bare つっても only opens a sentence) — blunt, brusque speech.
Notes
is the more emphatic, deliberate-sounding option over the same noun.
Related patterns
Similar
ても concedes any hypothetical or real circumstance with no comment on a prior claim's truth (雨[あめ]が降[ふ]っても行[い]く); と言っても specifically walks back the strength of a claim the speaker JUST MADE, softening their own overstatement (人気[にんき]と言っても、一部[いちぶ]でだけどね) — the two overlap only where a speaker is qualifying their own immediately preceding sentence.
Lookalikes
と言えば free-associates off a topic just mentioned, launching a new related thought (日本[にほん]と言えば、寿司[すし]だね "speaking of Japan, sushi"); と言っても walks back the strength of a claim the speaker just made, introducing nothing new (人気と言っても、一部だけ) — sharing と言 tempts a learner to read one as a register variant of the other, but their functions don't overlap.
Same と＿＿＿ても shell, differing only in the middle — と言っても concedes what's just been SAID or granted in words ("granting that," と言[い]っても言[い]い過[す]ぎだ), while としても concedes a constructed SUPPOSITION set up via する; skimming past 言う vs する at reading speed is an easy miss inside an otherwise identical frame.