Unintended Actions
This is the first of many useful tools that will become essential in your day-to-day conversations. We will now learn how to express an action that has taken place unintentionally often with unsatisfactory results. This is primarily done by the verb 「しまう」. Let's look at an example.
康介：宿題をやった？
Kousuke: Did you do homework?
アリス：しまった！
Alice: Oh no! (I screwed up!)
Using 「しまう」 with other verbs
When 「しまう」 is used in this sense, it is normal to attach it to the te-form of another verb to express an action that is done or happened unintentionally. As is common with this type of grammar, the tense is decided by the tense of 「しまう」.
- そのケーキを全部食べてしまった。
Oops, I ate that whole cake. - 毎日ケーキを食べて、２キロ太ってしまいました。
I ate cake everyday and I (unintentionally) gained two kilograms. - ちゃんと食べないと、痩せてしまいますよ。
If you don't eat properly, you'll (unintentionally) lose weight you know. - 結局、嫌なことをさせてしまった。
In the end, I (unintentionally) made [someone] do something distasteful. - ごめん、待たせてしまって！
Sorry about (unintentionally) making you wait! - 金魚がもう死んでしまった。
The goldfish died already (oops).
If you want to see many more examples, look up 「しまう」 on WWWJDIC and click the [EX] link. There are over 100 examples with translations for you to enjoy.
Using the casual version of 「～てしまう」
In casual speech, the 「～てしまう」 is often substituted by 「～ちゃう」 while 「～でしまう」 is substituted by 「じゃう」. Both 「～ちゃう」 and 「～じゃう」 conjugate just like regular u-verbs.
- 金魚がもう死んじゃった。
The goldfish died already. - もう帰っちゃっていい？
Is it ok if I went home already? - みんな、どっか行っちゃったよ。
Everybody went off somewhere. - そろそろ遅くなっちゃうよ。
It'll gradually become late, you know.
There is yet another very colloquial version of 「～てしまう」 and 「～でしまう」 where it is replaced by 「～ちまう」 and 「～じまう」 respectively. Unlike the cuter 「～ちゃう」 and 「～じゃう」 slang, this version conjures a image of rough and coarse middle-aged man.
- また遅刻しちまったよ。
Darn, I'm late again. - ごめん、ついお前を呼んじまった。
Sorry, I just ended up calling you unconsciously.
Another meaning of 「しまう」
If you look up 「しまう」, the edict dictionary will say:
仕舞う 【しまう】 (v5u) (uk) to finish; to close; to do something completely; to put away; to put an end to;
You may want to consider this a totally separate verb from the 「しまう」 we have covered so far. Occasionally but not usually, 「しまう」 will have this meaning rather than the unintended action.
- 宿題をやってしまいなさい。
Finish your homework completely.
I can't say that I have read
I can't say that I have read all the examples from WWWJDIC, but I think I can see a general trend: there are no examples with a 'negative' unintended action.
Since it is not clearly stated, I am not sure if this means that is it actually incorrect to use ってしまう to express a regret for NOT having done something.
For example: "I had a series of friends unexpectedly visiting me, so I ended up with not doing my homework, even if I wanted to".
Is it possible to translate this as <･･･宿題をしないでしまった>?
If not, what a correct translation could be?
Well, NOT doing something is
Well, NOT doing something is not considered an action, so it doesn't work that way.
But there is an advanced way to say that: ...宿題はせずじまいだった。 Unfortunately する has another conjugation than it has in the negative form here, but for other verbs like "買う" it will be simpler: …買わずじまいだった. As you see, you can get that form by replacing the ない in 買わない with ずじまい. だったis just the past form of だ, because 買わずじまい is something like a noun. And for する it is せずじまい, which you have to remember apart.
A simpler way is to add a verb. For example, you can say …宿題をしないで一日が終わってしまった。 or 宿題をしないで寝てしまった。 instead.
So many thanks! That's
So many thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for.
I received other suggestions, like using the negative potential form. For example:
宿題ができなかった.
However, I felt that this solution was losing almost all the nuance.
So I see that 買わず is none other that the other form of the negative verb, and じまい is clearly an euphonic suffix derived from the very same しまう verb, with exactly the same 'ending up with' meaning, transforming the whole expression in a noun that have to です in order to become a phrase.
So I'd literally (although horribly) translate: 'it was the conclusion of not buying'.
Which would of course mean precisely what I wanted to mean above: I ended up with not doing...
とても嬉しいです。どうもありがとうございました!
Had to try that list on
Had to try that list on WWWJDIC, I gotta say my favorite example was this:
爆発によって、彼らの生存はありえなくなってしまいました。
The explosion ruled out their survival.
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