でも

でも covers two distinct jobs that happen to share a shape: a sentence-initial conjunction (sense 1) and a particle attached to a noun (sense 2). Learners meet the conjunction first, but the particle is the more productive of the two.

AS A CONJUNCTION (sense 1):
でも starts a new sentence and pushes back against what was just said. It is the everyday spoken choice — softer and far more conversational than しかし.

• Position: sentence-initial only. Never use it to join two clauses inside one sentence; that job belongs to けど or が, which attach to the end of the first clause.
• 高(たか)いですけど、おいしいです and 高(たか)いです。でも、おいしいです say the same thing; only the packaging differs.

AS A PARTICLE (sense 2):
Attached directly to a noun, 〜でも picks out something as an extreme or unremarkable case, and lets the rest of the set follow by implication.

• "Even": 子供(こども)でも分(わ)かる — if even a child understands, so does everyone else.
• "Or something": お茶(ちゃ)でも飲(の)みませんか softens an invitation by presenting tea as one casual option rather than a fixed demand. This is the standard polite way to propose an activity.

With question words

Attached to an interrogative, 〜でも produces a free-choice "any-" word. These are common enough to have their own entries:

• 何(なに) → 何(なん)でも (anything)
• 誰(だれ) → 誰(だれ)でも (anyone)
• いつ → いつでも (anytime)
• どこ → どこでも (anywhere)

Note the reading shift: 何(なに) becomes 何(なん) before でも.

Register

でも is informal. In writing, presentations, and business email, use しかし or ところが instead. The particle 〜でも carries no such restriction and is at home at any level of politeness.