It Can't Be Helped

仕方無い (shikatanai) and 仕様が無い (shiyō ga nai, spoken shō ga nai): it can't be helped, there is no way. Both are 仕方が無い in the shapes people say it, the first with the particle clipped, the second with 仕様 for 仕方, two words for a way of doing; the dictionaries note that 仕様が無い is now mostly pronounced shō ga nai. The sense is the same in all three: a thing is beyond changing and the speaker has stopped looking for a way. Of a person the phrase means hopeless; of a feeling, unbearably. Both forms are on this page, each design with its own characters.