adverbial N2 common casualpolitewritten

どうせ — anyway / after all (resigned)

どうせ

Meaning

anyway / after all / in any case — with resignation: the outcome is already fixed, so why fight it

Cynical or self-deprecating resignation — the result is a foregone (usually unfavorable) conclusion. Can also flip to defiant: どうせやるなら全力ぜんりょくで = 'if I'm doing it anyway, I'll go all out.'

Key sentence

どうせ無理むりだから、やめておく。

It's hopeless anyway, so I'll pass.

Examples

どうせ私わたしなんて誰だれも気きにしない。

No one cares about me anyway.

どうせ買かうなら、いいものを買かおう。

If we're going to buy one anyway, let's get a good one.

Easily confused with

とにかくどうせ = defeatist 'it won't matter either way'; とにかく = neutral 'regardless, let's act on the main thing.' 結局どうせ pre-judges the outcome as fixed before the fact; 結局 reports the actual conclusion after the fact.

See どうせ in real sentences

Jengo shows どうせ the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar.

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