demo vs kedo / でも vs けど

Hello everyone, Kai here with another question.

Yesterday, a friend of mine, over Skype, asked me what time I woke up. I replied with 5:00. However, I wanted to add the fact that I usually wake up at six. I replied with,

ほとんど６時に起きてるけどね。
"But most of the time, I wake up at 6:00."

I felt like I was able to convey my thoughts correctly, but skepticism after the chat has made me think twice. Would there be any difference if I used でも instead?

"でもほとんど６時に起こしてるね。"

Any help would be appreciated!

Kai

There's a good summary on this page: grammar - でも (demo) versus けど (kedo) to mean "but" - Japanese Language Stack Exchange

In short, でも always goes at the beginning of a sentence, while けど is typically put in the middle or at the end. However, けど is always followed by an extra statement (if it is at the end of the sentence, this extra statement is implied and should be clear from context).

"I'd love to go to the party けど, I'm busy that day."
"That's a really nice costume けど..." (I don't think you should wear it in public)

Since your example only contains one statement, you have to use the second sentence with でも at the beginning.

ほとんど by itself doesn't give the impression of "usually" that you're going for there. It sounds more like you're saying you wake up when it's almost six than saying you usually wake up at six. Try ほとんどの日 (most days) instead or simply ふつう.

wuomin said:

Hello everyone, Kai here with another question.

Yesterday, a friend of mine, over Skype, asked me what time I woke up. I replied with 5:00. However, I wanted to add the fact that I usually wake up at six. I replied with,

ほとんど６時に起きてるけどね。
"But most of the time, I wake up at 6:00."

I felt like I was able to convey my thoughts correctly, but skepticism after the chat has made me think twice. Would there be any difference if I used でも instead?

"でもほとんど６時に起こしてるね。"

Any help would be appreciated!

Kai

Click to expand...

Unlike the example in the linked page, ほとんど６時に起きてるけどね。 is also said by the OP, thus, it's interpreted as an inversion.

５時に起きるようにしてるよ。ほとんど６時に起きてるけどね。 ＝ ほとんど６時に起きてるけど、５時に起きるようにしてるよ。

Thus, your choice is correct. The first sentence works perfectly fine. You can also use でもほとんど６時に起きてるけどね。

The problem in the second sentence is 起こしてる. This is wrong since 起こす is transitive. You don't wake someone up at 6 everyday.

All great responses. Thank you for the great insight, guys!