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For example:

After checking a few stores futilely, I found a store with what i needed

Is that correct, or is there better phrasing?

traveh
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    I think that replacing "futilely" with "in vain" yields a more natural-sounding sentence, but this is a matter of personal preference rather than objective correctness. – Sven Yargs Sep 28 '15 at 19:23
  • +1 to all the answers given but tbh I find @SvenYargs comment to be most useful - "in vain" just sounds better imo so I'll use that. If you would care to formulate your comment to an answer I would like to accept it. – traveh Sep 29 '15 at 09:21

5 Answers5

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I agree with the first answer. It is grammatically correct but sounds awkward. I just have an alternative way of wording the sentence: "After a futile search of a few stores, I finally found a store that had what I needed"

fiona wilson branson
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  • The order of answers can change at any time, so it's good to at least reference the name of the person who posted the answer you're agreeing with. :-) – Hellion Sep 29 '15 at 13:53
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Fruitlessly adverb from fruitless

Fruitless: "producing no good results : not successful" Merriam Webster

Thus, your sentence becomes: "After fruitlessly checking a few stores, I found a store that had what I needed."

Your sentence is OK but awkward. if you prefer futile, it would sound better as: "After a futile search through several stores, I finally found a store that had what I needed."

futile: "having no result or effect: pointless or useless" Merriam Webster

ab2
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Others have already said that it sounds awkward; I think that the reason it sounds awkward is that futility is generally an all-encompassing thing. If you set out to find an item and you eventually find it, your search was not futile, even if you had to look in many different places; calling each individual check "futile" contradicts your end result.

On the other hand, searching for something but never finding it, or going out to search for something that doesn't actually exist (such as many of the "prank items" used in the Armed forces, like telling the new private to go get a "long weight" from the quartermaster or to bring someone a "left-handed smoke shifter"), or for something that is no longer in the area you're searching (like a $20 bill that you dropped and someone else scooped up 5 minutes later) is genuinely futile.

Hellion
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  • Good point, and technically correct. I should have incorporated your distinction in my Answer. But note that in spoken English, one often exaggerates for effect. "This search is hopeless!" when it is merely long and tedious. – ab2 Sep 28 '15 at 18:42
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It's technically correct but uncommon and not particularly elegant. Try

After checking a few stores fruitlessly, I found a store with what i needed

as an alternative.

("My search was futile" or "the futility of my search" are the more standard phrasings using variants on futile.)

Chris Sunami
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It's the "ly' that's the problem; I'm not sure how to articulate it, but you can't really make futile a 'ly', because of the chronological implications;

Something is futile Something was futile

But because of the definition, it can't be an 'active' hopeless - more a finality? It's where the word actually is that causes the clash...

So;

"After checking a few stores futilely, I found a store with what i needed"

"After futilely checking a few stores, I (finally) found a store with what I needed"

user140476
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