てしまう Japanese Grammar Lesson
Grammar Type: Auxiliary Verb
Essential Meaning: Do X completely / Finish doing X / Accidentally do X
Construction:
- Verb て-Form + しまう
- E.g. 話してしまう [Completely finish speaking]
- E.g. 食べてしまう [Completely finish eating]
Notes:
- しまう is an auxiliary verb that indicates the completion of some action. It is often paired with degree adverbs such as すっかり [Completely] or 全部 [All / Entirely]
- E.g. マイクはすっかり日本語を忘れてしまった。[Mike completely forgot Japanese.]
- E.g. 私は持っていた切符を全部友達にあげてしまった。[Mike gave away all of his tickets to his friends.]
- The past tense form てしまった can also express the idea that someone did something that they shouldn’t have done, or that something has happened that shouldn’t have happened. It can imply regret on the agent’s part or it can imply the speaker’s criticism or regret about someone else’s actions or something that has happened.
- E.g. ジェリーはペギーのケーキを食べてしまった。 [Jerry regrettably ate Peggy’s cake.]
- E.g. 私は違うバスに乗ってしまった。[I accidentally took the wrong bus.]
- E.g. 雨が降ってしまったのでピクニックに行けなかった。[It unfortunately rained, so I wasn’t able to go to the picnic.]
- Whether てしまった is interpreted as regret / criticism or simply as the completion of an action depends on the context.
- E.g. 僕はお酒を飲んでしまった。[I finished drinking sake / I (regrettably) drank sake.]
- In casual speech, てしまう and でしまう are often contracted as ちゃう and じゃう respectively.
- E.g. 話してしまう = 話しちゃう
- E.g. 飲んでしまう = 飲んじゃう
- ちまう and じまう are another contracted form that is generally only used by male speakers.
- E.g. 話してしまう = 話しちまう
- E.g. 飲んでしまう = 飲んじまう
- The difference between てしまう and the regular past tense verb form (e.g. しました) is that てしまう expresses the full completion of an action independent of the time frame. In other words, it is not limited to the past tense.
- E.g. ここに置いておくとジムが食べてしまうよ。[If I leave this here, Jim will eat it.] This example describes a complete action that will occur in the future.
- E.g. *ここに置いておくとジムが食べたよ。 [If I leave this here, Jim ate it.] This construction does not makes sense. The regular て-Form would better express this past-tense causal relationship.
- てしまう is also similar to ~おわる. The differences are:
- (1) ~おわる indicates the action of finishing something, while てしまう indicates the state of some action being completed.
- E.g. 私は本を読み終わった。[I completed the action of reading the book.]
- E.g. 私は本を読んでしまった。[I am in the state of having read the book in its entirety.]
- (2) てしまう cannot occur with specific time phrases, but ~おわる can.
- E.g. 昨日その本を読み終わった。[I finished reading that book yesterday.]
- E.g. *昨日その本を読んでしまった。[Yesterday, I completely read that book.] てしまう cannot be used with specific time phrases.
- E.g. 今朝9時にやっとレポートを書き終わった。 [This morning at 9 AM I finally finished writing my report.]
- E.g. *今朝9時にやっとレポートを書いてしまった。[This morning at 9 AM I finally completely wrote my report.] てしまう cannot be used with specific time phrases.
- (3) しまう can be used with non-controllable verbs such as 忘れる [To forget], while ~おわる cannot.
- E.g. 僕はナンシーの住所を忘れてしまった。[I accidentally forgot Nancy’s address.]
- E.g. *僕はナンシーの住所を忘れ終わった。[I completed the action of forgetting Nancy’s address.]
- (1) ~おわる indicates the action of finishing something, while てしまう indicates the state of some action being completed.
Example Sentences:
池田くんは三日でその本を読んでしまった。[Ikeda-kun completely finished reading that book in three days.]
私はルームメートのミルクを飲んでしまった。[I accidentally drank my roommate’s milk.]
もう宿題をしてしまいましたか。[Have you completely finished doing your homework?]
私は今日中にそのレポートを書いてしまおうと思っている。[I think I will completely finish writing that report by the end of today.]
早くご飯を食べてしまいなさい。 [Finish eating quickly.]
シチューを作りすぎてしまいました。[I accidentally made too much stew.]
WILD Examples:
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