Rocket Japanese Community

Konnichiwa,

I was watching Naruto and I noticed they use Sukoshi for the word but. With RJ I have learned that the word for but is Demo. So, can you use both, or are there any restrictions?

Thanks.

Konnichiwa Ashwinr-san,

Sukoshi... is a word meaning "little" as in "little portion".
Sukoshi taberu... means "eat a little"
Sukoshi ageru... means "give a little"
It actually would never mean "but".

You may have heard it in the context...
"Demo sukoshi... something something." which translates as "But a little... something something."

Sayaka wrote:Konnichiwa Ashwinr-san,

Sukoshi... is a word meaning "little" as in "little portion".
Sukoshi taberu... means "eat a little"
Sukoshi ageru... means "give a little"
It actually would never mean "but".

You may have heard it in the context...
"Demo sukoshi... something something." which translates as "But a little... something something."

Konbanwa,

Arigato for the explanation.

I think I heard wrong. I checked again and heard them say it a few times more.

The word for but they use in naruto is shikashi. And that's different from shukoshi . But they also use demo. So it is a bit confusing. The Japanese language seems to have a lot of different words for the same thing depending on how formal the conversation is.

Konnichiwa Ashwinr-san,

Yes!! SHIKASHI does mean "but"!! Very good listening comprehension.

Let me explain the difference of SHIKASHI and DEMO - both translating as "but".

Think of the difference between these two English prepositions...
1. the more colloquial sound of "but" and
2. the more formal sound of "however."

DEMO is usually used instead of SHIKASHI in casual colloquial conversations. While SHIKASHI is somewhat 'official' -sounding.

So, しかし (shikashi) and でも (demo) are actually the same in meaning, though the formal shikashi leans more towards the English expression - "however" while demo is more like the casual expression - "but."

Konbanwa,

Arigato gozaimasu. This was very helpful.

You're very welcome!
Dou itashimashite.