useless
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useless
Describes something that serves no purpose, brings no advantage, or cannot be used. It is the opposite of useful.
Diese alte Fernbedienung ist nutzlos, weil die Batterien ausgelaufen sind.
This old remote control is useless because the batteries have leaked.
The word is made up of the stem 'nutz-' (from 'der Nutzen' (benefit/use)) and the ending '-los' (less/without). The ending '-los' means 'without', so 'nutzlos' (useless) literally describes something 'without use'.
Ein Telefon ohne Akku ist nutzlos.
A phone without a battery is useless.
'Nutzlos' (useless) is often used with verbs such as 'sein' (to be), 'werden' (to become), or 'sich erweisen als' (to prove to be) to describe that something does not, or no longer, fulfill its purpose.
Der alte Plan erwies sich als nutzlos.
The old plan proved useless.
'Nutzlos' (useless) often describes abstract things such as an effort, a piece of information, or a discussion, but also concrete objects.
Es war eine nutzlose Anstrengung, ihn überzeugen zu wollen.
It was a useless effort to try to convince him.
pointless / senseless
Both words can describe a measure that has no positive effect. Nutzlos emphasizes that it provides no practical benefit or serves no purpose; sinnlos evaluates it as unreasonable or lacking any understandable purpose. When the lack of benefit is the main point, nutzlos is appropriate; for a more general evaluation, use sinnlos.
Es ist nutzlos, weiter über denselben Fehler zu streiten, weil keine Lösung entsteht.
It is useless to keep arguing about the same mistake because no solution will emerge.
Es ist sinnlos, weiter über denselben Fehler zu streiten.
It is pointless to keep arguing about the same mistake.
