I cannot for the life of me get the questions for these straight. I mix them up constantly, even after reading the explanations / some of the readings that compare them.
Any tips?
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I’m not sure either, but I think of them like this:
にしても - Even if…
にしては - Considering the expectation of X… (something is different)
としては - As for assuming the role of X… (some additional information)
Not sure if my examples make sense either or would be natural translations, but here you go:
恋人としては 考えられない
As for them assuming the role of a lover, that’s unthinkable.
恋人にしては ちょっと寒い
Considering what I’d expect of them as a lover, they’re kind of cold.
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It’s a good topic for discussion, this is just the way I hear it:
としても: と seems to emphasize the conditional particle which feels even more unlikely; particularly due to A.
Even if assuming A, then B…
にしても: に here just a has a connect forward motion feel, emphasis is on the factual nature of B:
Even if A, B is the reason why…
I think for BunPro, probably best not to get hung up on the “Even if” key word translation ( the ‘assuming’ gives it away) and have it be guessing game. To do with Japanese alone I think is pretty tough though, I don’t think there is enough contextual nuance to convey a distinction in some examples, there very well could be interchangeable depending how the speaking want to express or surrounding situation. としても certainly sounds more argumentative or making a point of the impossibility. Other examples diverge once a new topic is introduced for にしても, which are behaving like a topic marker anyways.
にしては: は has the topic marker feel just like English and feel it’s pretty distinguished compared to other two, at least the I see it.
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