Translation guide
Describes efforts, attempts, or actions that produce no useful result. In Japanese, this is expressed through adjectives, verbs, and set phrases that emphasize wasted effort or lack of outcome.
The most common use: describing an action or effort that was pointless or produced nothing.
A na-adjective meaning 'wasteful' or 'futile'. Very common and natural for describing fruitless efforts.
His efforts were fruitless.
Stop your fruitless resistance.
Literally 'does not bear fruit'. Used for efforts, discussions, or hopes that don't lead to a concrete result.
The long meeting was fruitless.
A proverb meaning 'all pain, no gain'—a fruitless effort that only leaves you tired. More colorful and less common in daily speech.
I searched all day, but it was a fruitless effort.
When looking for something or trying to find out information, but coming up empty.
Emphasizing that an action was never going to succeed, often with a nuance of hopelessness.
無駄な focuses on waste and lack of practical result, while 空しい carries an emotional tone of emptiness or vanity. Use 無駄な for concrete efforts, and 空しい for hopes or searches that feel hollow.
The English word 'fruitless' literally means 'without fruit', but the Japanese equivalent 実らない is not always the best choice. It is mainly used for processes that fail to produce a tangible outcome. For general futility, 無駄な is safer.
All our efforts were fruitless.
The search proved fruitless.