しょうがない (shō ga nai)

What it means

1. 1.

   It can't be helped; nothing to be done. Closes off complaint about something outside anyone's control.

2. 2.

   Also used indulgently of a person: しょうがないなあ, 'honestly, what are you like' — exasperated but fond.

Examples with translations

• 雨だからしょうがないね。

  It's raining, so there's nothing we can do.

• しょうがないなあ、今回だけだよ。

  Oh, all right then — but just this once.

Where it comes from

A contraction of 仕様がない, 'there is no method'. Foreign commentators regularly read it as fatalism; Japanese speakers use it more narrowly, to mark the point where continuing to object would be pointless rather than to deny agency in general.

Other forms

Romanised as:

shō ga nai

Spellings and variants:

仕方ない, しゃーない