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Formation: V-dictionary + 始末だ; V-ない + 始末だ; この／あの + 始末だ

Comes at the end of a story about a situation going downhill and presents the final result, which is bad or shameful. It carries the speaker's criticism, exasperation or disgust, and it often comes with ついには, とうとう, 最後には or あげくの果てに. Most of the time it describes other people or circumstances; about yourself, it sounds self-mocking. It is a slightly stiff pattern that appears in both writing and speech, and この始末だ ('look at the state of this') is a common set phrase. Compare 〜挙げ句（に）, which links a long, troublesome process to its result in the middle of a sentence; 始末だ ends the sentence and puts the weight on how dreadful the outcome is. 〜末（に） is neutral and can describe a good outcome.

Variants: 始末です、この始末だ、あの始末だ

Examples

• 息子は遊んでばかりで、ついには大学を辞めると言い出す始末だ。
  My son does nothing but play around, and now he's even talking about quitting university.
• 何度注意しても遅刻を繰り返し、今では無断で休む始末だ。
  No matter how often he's warned, he keeps coming in late, and now he even skips work without telling anyone.
• あれだけ自信満々だったのに、この始末だ。
  After all that confidence, and look how things turned out.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

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