たところでeven if (it won't help)
Even if you did it, it wouldn't help, or it wouldn't change much. The action is only imagined; what follows is a low opinion of what it would achieve.
it won't help
Even if we hurry, we won't make the last train anyway.
it won't matter
Even if we are a little late, it won't be a big problem.
How to form it
Verb in the た-form + ところで
急いだ → 急いだところで. The た isn't past.
- Often with
- 今さら (at this late stage), どうせ (anyway), いくら, どんなに, 何度.
- After it
- A negative verdict or a low estimate: 無駄だ, 間に合わない, 何も変わらない, わけではない, せいぜい…だ.
- Tone
- When it won't help: resigned about your own chances, and discouraging about someone else's idea: "what's the use?" When it won't matter: it makes light of the thing.
- Where you'll meet it
- Conversation and writing alike.
In use
Apologizing now won't bring back the trust you lost, not straight away.
However carefully you explain, it won't get through to someone who doesn't want to listen.
Call it expensive, but it's a thousand yen at most.
A low estimate, after といった: "even if you call it …".
It hasn't happened
So it isn't the way to say you did something and it didn't work. That is けど or ても.
Not said: 急いだ
(I hurried, but I didn't make the last train.)
急いだけど、間に合わなかった.
The same words are also ところ as a point in time: "when" or "once". Then what follows is what happened next, or what to do next.
Even if everyone were here, nothing would get decided.
A negative verdict: "even if".
Once everyone was there, we started the meeting.
What happened next: "once".
Other ところ
ところでN3
Starting a new sentence, after a pause: "by the way".
It was a shame about yesterday's game, wasn't it? By the way, what time does the next practice start?
たところN2
Without で: "when I did, I found". It happened, and this is what came of it.
When I asked a member of the station staff, I was told that the next rapid train doesn't stop at this station.
Close neighbours
ても・でもN4
The plain "even if", with any ending, and "even though" for what really happened.
Even though I took the medicine, my fever didn't go down.
たってN3
ても in casual speech, often with the same "it's no use".
No matter how many times you read it, this explanation won't make sense.
After a noun or a supposition: "even for him", "even supposing so".
Even the company president can't decide everything alone.
Check yourself
1Which ending fits?
いくら
Choose an answer to see why.
2What does this mean?
仕事が
Choose an answer to see why.
More sentences
Even if we leave now, we won't get there before the performance starts.
Regretting the past won't change anything.
Putting the deadline back a day won't make the work any less.
What good would it do to collect old material like that?
Even if the figures are hidden, an investigation will bring them out at once.
No negative, but the verdict is the same: hiding them is no use.