Natural or Strong Emotion

Table of Contents

This page deals with expressions that express natural and strong emotions:

てならない – No choice but to
てしょうがない – Can’t help but
てたまらない – Can’t bear it
てとうぜん – Naturally

てならない

Unable to not feel…
(Feeling) い Adjective/Verb て form + ならない
(Feeling) Noun/な Adjective + でならない

ならない means “unable”. It comes from the old ならぬ which meant できない (Source)
You can think of this pattern as て我慢できない
This pattern just means “Unable to suppress a feeling“
This pattern is basically only going to be used with emotional words.

Be very careful not to use てはならない instead.

Examples

心配でならない – Can’t help but worry
結果を気になってならない – Can’t help but be concerned about the results
残念でなりません – Can’t help but feel disappointed.

てしょうがない

Can’t help it
Inevitable Occurrence + てしょうがない
Emotion + てしょうがない
Strong Emotion + てしょうがない

てしょうがない means “can’t help it” and can be used for:

Strong Feelings (Same as てならない) and Inevitable occurrences
Strong Emotions – “I am so happy I can’t help it“.

This pattern is interchangeable with てしかたがない

Can’t help it

Inevitable occurrences:

背が伸びて仕方がない – There’s nothing you can do about getting taller
年を取ってしょうがない – There’s nothing you can do about getting older.
20時間の残業をしたから、疲れてしょうがない – I did 20 hours of overtime, so I can’t help being tired.

Emotions:

結果が気になってしょうがない – I can’t help but wonder about the results.
彼女を心配してしょうがない – Nothing I can do about worrying about her.

Strong Emotions

This pattern can sometimes be repeated for stress

N1を合格したら嬉しくてしょうがなかった – I was so happy I couldn’t help it when I passed N1
愛犬が死んだから悲しくて仕方がありません – My beloved dog died, I’m so sad I can’t help it.
連絡が取れないのは不安で不安でしょうがない – Not being able to get in touch is so so troubling.

てたまらない

Unbearable/Really want to…
Strong Emotion or Sensation + てたまらない

てたまらない means “unbearably” it is used for some strong emotion or sensation that is ”unbearable”.
It can be a bad things (Heat) or a good thing that’s really strong (Love).

It somewhat suggests that the speaker wants to resolve the feeling.
This phrase is commonly used with the たい form.

This pattern may also repeat itself for stress.

Examples

寒くてたまらない – Its so cold I can’t bear it.
彼女に会いたくてたまらない – I want to see her so bad I can’t bear it. (I really want to see her)
このカレーは美味しくてたまらない – This curry is really good. (I want more)
私は不思議でたまらない – I’m really perplexed by (it). –> I really want to know what it is
ジムから帰ったら眠たくて眠たくてたまらない – After returning from the gym, I’m so unbearably sleepy.

てとうぜん

X is Natural
Adjective/Verb て form + とうぜん

This one is pretty straightforward. It just states the obvious.
This could be a response, or to address an (obvious) forthcoming issue.
Tends to explain the reason beforehand.

You can also replace とうぜん with あたりまえだ, but this sound a bit harsher.
“naturally” vs. “well of course”

Examples

一日働いたから疲れて当然だ – I work all day so its natural I’m tired.
毎日ジムに行ってるから強くて当然だ – He goes to the gym everyday, so of course he’s strong.
N1を合格したから嬉しくて当然だ – He passed N1 so of course he’s happy.