EVEN SO or EVEN THOUGH – what is the difference?

How To Avoid Mistakes With EVEN THOUGH and EVEN SO

Here is Audio Word Study #027 from Jane Lawson at DailyStep.com – Even (part 1)

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EVEN is a small word but it sometimes causes big problems for English learners. If you are an English teacher, I’m sure that your students often ask you about this word. In this audio word study, we’ll look at two common expressions that my students ask me to explain:

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EVEN SO
Meaning: EVEN SO means ‘despite what has just been said’. 

 

Example: 1. The boy had a broken ankle, but even so he managed to get to the hospital without any help.

note: in this example, EVEN SO needs to follow the word ‘but’ or another conjunction that joins two main clauses. We can’t use EVEN SO in a dependent clause. It needs to be at the beginning of a main clause.

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2. The company was growing quickly. Even so, the director was careful not to take on too many staff.

 

note: in this example, EVEN SO is at the beginning of a new sentence, and is followed by a comma. We can’t reverse the order of the sentences.

 In other words, it is incorrect to say ‘Even so, the director was careful not to take on too many staff. The company was growing quickly.’ This does not make any sense!

EVEN THOUGH

Meaning: EVEN THOUGH means the same as ALTHOUGH, but it is stronger in meaning.

 Example: 1. Even though it was snowing outside, he went for a walk in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts!

note: we can’t separate this into two sentences. In other words we can’t say ‘Even though it was snowing outside. He went for a walk in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.’

 

This is because EVEN THOUGH is always at the beginning of a dependent clause, not a main clause. However, we can reverse the order of the clauses.

 

We can say ‘He went outside for a walk in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts even though it was snowing outside’.
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2. The employees had to stay at the office until late in the evening even though they had finished all their work. 

Pronunciation note: EVEN THOUGH is often pronounced as EVEN SO, because the TH sound in English is often wrongly pronounced as S. 

.So be careful, because they are used in the opposite side of the sentence! Look at these examples: 
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It was raining but even so, we had a picnic.
Even though it was raining, we had a picnic.
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Well, that’s all for today’s word study! I will teach you some more ways to use EVEN in a future audio blog!

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