羽目になるend up having to
Circumstances landed someone, often you, with something they didn't want to do: "ended up having to". It is how people tell their own bad luck.
The road was closed, so I ended up having to walk an hour to the station.
If we keep putting off the corrections, we'll end up having to come in on the weekend too.
How to form it
Verb (dictionary form) + 羽目になる
Often written in kana: はめになる. 羽目になった for what happened, 羽目になる as a warning, 羽目になりそうだ for what looks likely. Stiffer: 羽目に陥る.
- Before it
- Something nobody would choose: extra work, a long walk, paying out of your own pocket, explaining yourself.
- What leads to it
- A slip, bad luck or someone else's doing, usually said first with ので, ため or せいで.
- Where you'll meet it
- Everyday talk, whenever someone tells how things went wrong. Novels and columns too.
In use
I forgot my wallet and ended up having to borrow lunch money from a friend.
The person in charge suddenly took the day off, so at this rate it looks as if I'll end up running the briefing on my own.
I hadn't checked the terms of the contract, and for a whole year found myself stuck paying even for a service I didn't use.
羽目に陥る: stiffer, and for a real fix.
It is never good news
English "ended up" can be neutral, or even happy. 羽目になる can't: whatever comes before it is a burden.
Sounds odd: 彼女と
I got stuck with marrying her.
It says the marriage was forced on you. A plain "we ended up getting married" is 結婚することになった.
始末だ or 羽目になる?
He kept turning up late, and now it has come to staying away without a word.
What he sank to. You are fed up with him.
In the end I got stuck with doing it all myself.
What you got stuck with. You didn't choose it.
Close neighbours
始末だN1
Ends an account of things going from bad to worse with the last, worst thing someone did. It looks back in exasperation, and doesn't warn.
He got through his allowance in a week, and after that it came to borrowing even his lunch money from friends.
ことになるN4
How things turned out, or what has been decided. Good news or bad, it doesn't say.
The trains stopped, and I ended up staying near the station that night.
ざるを得ないN2
The written "have no choice but to". The weight is on there being no way out, not on your bad luck.
For family reasons, I had no choice but to leave the company I had worked at for many years.
Check yourself
1Which one fits?
今
Choose an answer to see why.
2Which one fits?
ずっと
Choose an answer to see why.
More detail
羽目を外す, "to let yourself go", is a separate phrase.
More sentences
I had forgotten the due date, so I ended up having to go and return it to the library first thing in the morning.
The meeting handouts didn't save, so I ended up having to make them again from scratch.
If you place the order without checking the budget, you'll end up paying the difference out of your own pocket.
If the staff shortage goes on, even the manager will end up having to close up every night.