〜てもしょうがない

there's no point in (doing); it does no good to; it can't be helped if

Formation: V-て form + も + しょうがない (い-adj: 〜くても; な-adj/N: 〜でも)

A conversational way to say that doing something is pointless and won't change anything; it can also mean a result is unavoidable or understandable. 〜ても仕方がない is the slightly more formal equivalent. Do not confuse it with 〜てしょうがない, which has no も and expresses an unbearably strong feeling or state.

Variants: 〜ても仕方がない、〜てもしかたない、〜てもしようがない

Examples

今さら後悔してもしょうがない。
There's no point in regretting it now.
一人で悩んでいてもしょうがないから、先輩に相談した。
Since there was no use worrying alone, I talked to a senior colleague.

In real texts 1 occurrence(s)

じぶんへの戒めとして、書いておく（笑） · 2026年11月7日

だけど、そこにばかり人数がいてもしょうがないのだ。

But there's no point in having people only in that spot.

It attaches to いて, from いる: having people there achieves nothing. Together with ばかり in そこにばかり, it targets imbalance, not checking itself: checkers aren't useless, but having them only there is. The casual しょうがない suits the essay's spoken voice. The trap is 〜てしょうがない without も, which means "extremely, unbearably" and would be a misreading here.