何を食べても美味しくない vs 魚を食べてもいい

Question

歯が痛くて何を食べても美味しくない

vs

魚を食べてもいい

The first example seems to me as though

何ても - anything and in the middle is 食べ

So basically reading as Anything Eaten is not delicious

but the second example im reading it as Even if its fish you eat , its okay (giving permission)

where it isn't connected to the Question Who, what, when wear words...

This is so confusing to me, i even read this article but i dont understand why when there isn't a question word the meaning seems to change

I read this a few times as well

http://maggiesensei.com/2016/10/12/wh-everno-matter-whhow-%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82%E3%81%A7%E3%82%82-temodemo/

Answer 1

Your understanding seems to be fairly accurate.

Verb in て-form + も generally means "even if verb". e.g. 食べても = "even if you eat".

For giving permission てもいい is a special case, but it still makes sense to think of it as 'even if'. 食べてもいい = "even if you eat, it's good" = "It's okay if you eat".

A question word preceding the verb changes the usage again. 何を食べても = "No matter what you eat". I can't think of a way to express this in English using "even if", but hopefully you can see there's a connection. Other examples:

どこに行っても = No matter where you go
だれに話しても = No matter who you talk to
歯が痛くて何を食べても美味しくない = I have tooth ache and no matter what I eat it's not nice.

I'm not sure I've told you anything you didn't already know. Let me know if it's still not clear.