～てならないVery, Extremely, Can't help but do

Structure

Verb［て］+ ならない
［い］Adjective［て］+ ならない
［な］Adjective + で + ならない

Details

Register
Formal
Rare Kanji
成らない

About てならない

てならない is a construction made up of the て-form of a verb or adjective (で for な-Adjectives), and the negated form of the う-Verb なる, 'to become'. This expression describes the word that is attached to it as being 'extremely (A)', or that one 'can't help but do (A)'.

In most cases, てならない will be used when (A) is something that occurs naturally, such as feelings. Due to this, a more literal translation is close to 'to not be able to move on from (A)'. In this way, it just indicates that (A) is so intense that the person affected by it cannot do anything about it.

Caution

In addition to being spontaneous and uncontrollable, (A) will almost always be something that is ongoing, rather than just being momentary.

彼女(かのじょ)はいつも僕(ぼく)に嘘(うそ)をつくからむかついてならない。

I can't help but be extremely mad at her because she lies to me all the time. (Continuing feeling, natural Japanese)
この漫画(まんが)はつまらなくてならない。

This manga is extremely boring. (Momentary feeling, unnatural Japanese)

Synonyms

Examples

--:--

詐欺(さぎ)にあった気(き)がしてならない。

I can't help but feel it was a scam.

あんなコレクションは無駄(むだ)に思(おも)えてならない。

I cannot help but think that that collection is worthless.

去年(きょねん)あなたと見(み)た紅葉(こうよう)が思(おも)い出(だ)されてならない。

I can't help but remember the fall colors I saw with you last year.

この毛皮(けがわ)は暑(あつ)くてならない。

This fur is extremely warm. (I can't help but feel...)

明日(あした)の見学(けんがく)が楽(たの)しみでならない。

I can't help but look forward to tomorrow's field trip.

Get more example sentences!
Premium users get access to 12 example sentences on all Grammar Points.
Try Bunpro

Self-Study Sentences

Study your own way!

Add sentences and study them alongside Bunpro sentences.

Try Bunpro

Online
- ～てならない
  Mojisuke
- Breakdown, comparisons and examples
  日本語教師のN1et
- Contrasting 〜てならない、〜てしょうがない and 〜てたまらない
  Japanese StackExchange
- ～てならない
  日本語の森 [video]

Offline
- A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
  219
Track Resources!
Bunpro tracks all of the resources you’ve visited, and offers relevant bookmarks of physical books to help with offline tracking.
Try Bunpro

てならない – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (10 in total)

simias
I’m really confused by this point because I don’t really understand the underlying concept of the Japanese construction.

To take one of the examples discussed previously here:

詐欺にあった気がしてならない。

I think that a very literal word-for-word translation would be something like “it can’t become that I feel that it was a fraud” or something like that, but this seems to imply the opposite of what it actually means.

I actually first encountered this point outside of Bunpro in a videogame I was playing, and I had to look it up here because I couldn’t make sense of it even in context since it seemed to say the opposite of what it’s actually saying.

I don’t get where this negative is coming from and how this expression came to mean that.
nekoyama

simias:

I think that a very literal word-for-word translation would be something like “it can’t become that I feel that it was a fraud”

I don’t think this works as a literal translation, the two parts aren’t linked in this fashion.

simias:

I don’t get where this negative is coming from and how this expression came to mean that.

...
simias
Yeah I noticed that dictionaries would have a separate item specifically for this use, but it’s quite funny as a result because it seems like the word says one thing and its opposite: