Skip to content
JLPT N2Time Expressions

～あげく(に)— After All That, In the End

Used to describe a result that comes after a long, often painful or drawn-out process of effort, worry, or trouble. It carries a strongly negative or regretful nuance — 'after struggling with X (for a long time), it ended up (badly) as Y.' It emphasizes both the exhausting process and the (usually undesirable) final outcome.

Grammar path · 練習

Practice this in the path

A short lesson: the pattern, its sentence anatomy, a quick quiz and a sentence to build.

Pro lessonUNIT 13 · TIME EXPRESSIONS

Structure · 形

[Verb た-form / Noun の] + あげく(に)

Examples · 例文

  • さんざん悩んだあげく、会社を辞めることにした。

    Sanzan nayanda ageku, kaisha o yameru koto ni shita.

    After agonizing over it for ages, I ended up deciding to quit the company.

    悩んだ (た-form of 悩む, struggled) + あげく shows the drawn-out worry leading to the final decision.

  • 長時間の議論のあげくに、結論は出なかった。

    Chōjikan no giron no ageku ni, ketsuron wa denakatta.

    After a long discussion, in the end no conclusion was reached.

    議論の (Noun + の) + あげくに + a negative outcome (no conclusion), typical of this pattern.

  • 道に迷ったあげく、約束の時間に大幅に遅れた。

    Michi ni mayotta ageku, yakusoku no jikan ni ōhaba ni okureta.

    After getting completely lost, I ended up being way late for the appointment.

    迷った (た-form) + あげく connects the ordeal of getting lost to the bad result of being late.

Usage notes · 注意

  • Register: formal/written; common in essays and news-style narration.
  • Nuance: almost always a negative or regrettable result — do not use for happy outcomes.
  • Needs a process: the preceding clause must show effort/struggle over time, not a single instant.
  • あげくの果て(に) is an even stronger, more emphatic variant ('in the very end').

Commonly confused with

The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones ～あげく(に) is tested against.

vs末(に)

末(に) is neutral and can end positively ('after much X, finally Y'), while あげく nearly always implies a negative, undesirable outcome.

vs結果

～た結果 simply states the result of an action neutrally; あげく adds the nuance of a long, wearying process and a bad ending.

More time expressions

Study Japanese grammar on LenGaki

Everything on this page, ready to study

  • 7,788 JLPT vocabulary words, N5 through N1, with readings and audio (N5 free)
  • 2,057 kanji with on'yomi, kun'yomi and stroke-order practice
  • 445 grammar points with examples and commonly-confused comparisons
  • Full-length N5 and N4 mock exams, timed, with real listening audio (N5 sets 1 and 2 free)