Late last year, my French husband told me he had been discussing what are considered the essential virtues of Japanese culture with the 偉い人 (erai hito, bigwigs) at his company. The one skill they all agreed on was やり抜く力 (yarinuku chikara), the ability to persevere and complete a task despite any challenges involved.

Grammatically speaking, the term やり抜く力 is an example of one of many Japanese compound verbs. Some simple ones you may already know are 食べ始める (tabehajimeru, to start eating) and 食べ終わる (tabeowaru, to finish eating). In these two examples, 始める (hajimeru, to start) and 終わる (owaru, to end) are used as auxiliary verbs that modify the main verb 食べる (taberu, to eat), which precedes them.

Say you’re at a restaurant. If the food of the person you are with comes first, you can tell them, “どうぞ先に食べ始めてください” (Dōzo saki ni tabehajimete kudasai, Please start eating). If you’d like your server to clear the table, tell them, “もう食べ終わったので、食器をさげてください” (Mō tabeowatta no de, shokki o sagete kudasai, I’ve already finished eating, please take away the dishes).

To form a compound verb, you will first need to have a verb stem. The formation of a verb stem involves removing the “ます” (masu) from what is known as the “masu form” of the verb. So, in the case of 食べる (which is in the dictionary form), change the verb to “食べます” before chopping off the end to get the stem, “食べ.” Then, attach the auxiliary or helper verb.

Other common compound verbs use 続ける (tsuzukeru, to continue) and 直す (naosu, to fix) in the helper position. That can give us words like 言い続ける (iitsuzukeru, to go on and on) and 書き直す (kakinaosu, to rewrite), respectively.

However, compound verbs become a bit more complicated when the helper element is used to produce a different meaning to what the original verb meant. Examples of such verbs include: 切る (kiru, to cut), 込む (komu, to be crowded) and 抜く (nuku, to extract).

When using 切る as a helper, the new compound verb will have the meaning of “doing something fully.” That will give us やり切る (yarikiru, to do something completely), 使い切る (tsukaikiru, to completely use up) and 読み切る (yomikiru, to read something completely).

Using 込む will provide the meaning of “going into something” or “doing something deeply.” For example, you might see or hear the word 駆け込む (kakekomu, to dash into) on a train platform, as in 駆け込み乗車はおやめください (kakekomi jōsha wa o-yame kudasai, please refrain from dashing onto the train [last minute]), or 切り込む (kirikomu, to cut deep into), as in その場凌ぎの対策では麻薬中毒問題に切り込むことはできないでしょう (sono bashinogi no taisaku dewa mayakuchūdoku mondai ni kirikomu koto wa dekinai deshō, Those temporary policy measures won’t make a dent in the problem of drug addiction).

Which brings us to 抜く, the helper verb used in this article’s initial example of やり抜く力. When adding 抜く to a main verb, the result means to do something from beginning to end. Thus, やり抜く (yarinuku) on its own means “to carry out to completion.” While やり切る has a similar meaning, やり抜く includes the nuance of doing something to completion despite any difficulties, which is why やり抜く力 can be translated as “the ability/ power to persevere.”

やり抜く pops up frequently in Japanese business-speak and is regularly associated with achievement and resilience. In fact, the book “Nine Things Successful People Do Differently” by Heidi Grant Halvorson is translated in Japanese as “やり抜く人の９つの習慣” (Yarinuku hito no kokonotsu no shūkan, The nine habits of people who persevere).

The English loanword レジリエンス (rejiriensu, resilience), which involves 強靭さ (kyōjinsa, toughness) and 柔軟さ (jūnansa, flexibility), is sometimes used in place of やり抜く力. However, the latter term is likely to be understood more broadly due to the compound verb’s inclusion.

Below is an example of a conversation that might take place at a pharmaceutical company:

部長：皆さんもご存じの通り、今回は当局の許可が下りませんでした。

課長：部長、次のステップはどうしましょうか。

部長：場合によっては、申請を取り下げましょう。

課長：わかりました。申請資料を書き直しますか？

部長：そうしてください。そのためには開発の戦略を考え直す必要があります。

課長：チームのメンバーは少し落ち込んでいますが、やり続けることの大切さを話し合います。

Buchō: Minasan mo go-zonji no tōri, konkai wa tōkyoku no kyoka ga orimasendeshita.

Kachō: Buchō, tsugi no suteppu wa dō shimashō ka.

Buchō: Baai ni yotte wa, shinsei o torisagemashō.

Kachō: Wakarimashita. Shinsei-shiryō o kakinaoshimasu ka?

Buchō: Sō shite kudasai. Sono tame niwa kaihatsu no senryaku o kangaenaosu hitsuyō ga arimasu.

Kachō: Chīmu no menbā wa sukoshi ochikonde-imasu ga, yaritsuzukeru koto no taisetsusa o hanashiaimasu.

Director: As you all know, we were not able to get permission from the authorities at this time.

Manager: Chief, what’s our next step?

Director: Depending on the situation, we will withdraw the application.

Manager: Understood. Do you want us to rewrite the application?

Director: Please do so. We need to rethink our development strategy.

Manager: The team members are a little disappointed, but we will discuss the importance of continuing to work on it.

In this case, the manager might want to offer some words of encouragement to their team using the 〜ても (temo, even though) construction. For example: 難しくてもここを乗り越えなくてはなりません (Muzukashikutemo koko o norikoe nakute wa narimasen, Even if it is difficult, we must get through this), 失敗しても目標を持ち続けてください (Shippai shitemo mokuhyō o mochitsuzukete kudasai, Even though we failed, continue to keep the goal in mind),できないと思い込んではいけません (Dekinai to omoikonde wa ikemasen, Don’t assume that you can’t do it) or 外から悪い影響があっても解決策を見出すことは必ずできます (Soto kara warui eikyō ga attemo kaiketsu-saku o miidasu koto wa kanarazu dekimasu, We can always find solutions even though we’ve had some negative external factors).

Don’t give up on your Japanese studies even when you encounter difficulties, try to soldier forward. 日本語をマスターするためには、あきらめないでやり抜く力が必要です (Nihongo o masutā suru tame ni wa, akiramenaide yarinuku chikara ga hitsuyō desu, In order to master Japanese, you need to have the ability persevere without giving up).