Apart from meaning "even if", does 「ても・でも」 also mean "even though"?

Question

Take the sentence 「私は老人でもそんなことまだできるよ」. At first glance, I would translate this as "Even if I were an old person, I could still do those things", implying that I am not yet old.

But could I not also translate it as "Even though I am an old person, I can still do those things", implying that I am old? And if so, in this case I could replace it with のに or けれど etc., correct?

Another example: 「雨が降っても行く」 means "Even if it rains, I will go". If I changed it to 「雨が降っても行った」, does this now mean "Even though it rained, I went"?

Answer 1

If you're still young, this sentence should be 私が老人でもそんなことできるよ because 私 is not the topic of the sentence.

If you're actually already old, usually you have to say 私は老人だけどそんなことまだできるよ.

Actually, でも is sometimes used to make a contrast between two things or facts, like けど or "even though". Here are examples taken from 明鏡国語辞典 第二版:

• 表面は穏やかでも、内心は分からない。
  ≒ 表面は穏やかだけど、内心は分からない。
  (Even though he looks calm superficially...)
• 昔は貧乏でも、今は裕福だ。
  ≒ 昔は貧乏だったけど、今は裕福だ。
  (Even though I was poor in the past...)

However this pattern is not directly applicable to your sentence. These sentences compare 表面 vs 内面, or 昔 vs 今, using two は. 私は老人でもそんなこと(は)できる sounds unnatural to me because you cannot directly compare 私 and そんなこと. Something like "年齢は70歳でも肉体は50歳だから、そんなことはまだできる" would be fine.

ても in 雨が降っても行った is plain "if". The sentence means "Even if it had rained, I would have gone (anyway)." This implies it did not rain in reality.