ても良いです (temo ii desu) Meaning Japanese Grammar - You Can

The structure ても良(い)いです (temo ii desu) uses the て form of the verb joined to も良(い)いです and refers to the possibility of doing something (given the circumstances it is possible to perform a certain action).

The same expression is used for asking permission to perform an action. ても良(い)いですか (temo ii desu ka). It is the expression you use for asking permission to do something: May I?

The verb 入る (to enter) becomes 入って in the て form.

Let us try to break down the expression and connect the parts:

• 入って enter, come in (form in て)
• 良いです(か) all right (is it all right?)

Literally translated: I come in and... is it fine?

ても良(い)いですか and affirmative answer

The answer we can get from the permission request can be affirmative:

ても良(い)いですか and negative answer

Or it can be negative and we are thus not allowed to perform the action:

Confidential form

Among friends and family, with people one is familiar with, we can omit the particle も, the verb です and the interrogative particle か.

ても良いです with adjectives and nouns

ても良いです is commonly used with both the adjectives in い, いい, な and the nouns.

Even in these cases it is asked permission or consent to do or not do something.

Let's imagine a situation where a friend asks us for a favour to buy something to drink. Here our question could be:

なくても良いです: don't need to do

We can use the same structure with the negative て form: なくて or ないで and in this case we refer to something that is not necessary or obligatory to do.

As we see in the picture, since it is an American house, it is not necessary to take off your shoes, as is customary to do before entering a Japanese house. なくても良(い)い can be replaced by 〜する必(ひつ)要(よう)がない: no need to do.

Examples of ても良(い)いです

I'm asked to buy an item and I check if the person is OK with any price, if I can buy the item even if it's not cheap.

The adjective in な and the noun add で which is the て form of the copula だ.

The の at the end of the sentence replaces です in this case.