55851
I learned that てしまいます can both express regret and having finished a task.

How can one differentiate between the two meanings without context ?

Example: 水を飲んでしまいました. - I have finished drinking the water / I drank the water
(with a sense of regret)

If one cannot differentiate without context, is there a way to make explicit
which meaning is implied ?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-10T19:46:46.313
55836
2018-01-11T08:02:31.160
22494
question
grammar meaning て-form
Double meaning of てしまいます
It only has one meaning: "to do something in an irreversible manner". Applying
it to various examples may produce various expressions in other languages. But
that's a problem of translation, rather than that of the meaning of the word
itself.

In the case of your example, 水を飲んでしまった doesn't mean "I have finished drinking
the water", (or rather I suspect there are any cases where it means "to have
finished something"), but "I drank water", and in this case sense of
irreversibility usually reflects that of regret.

This sense of irreversibility is not always rendered into that of regret. For
example, やってしまおう is an encouragement or an invitation to do something that
would feel reluctant otherwise.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-11T08:02:31.160
55851
2018-01-11T08:02:31.160
4092
55836
answer