# Spanish equivalent of "What are you gonna do?"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-equivalent-of-what-are-you-gonna-do/721556>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 3, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-equivalent-of-what-are-you-gonna-do/721556 "2015-06-03T18:04:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![funky\_little\_lee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@funky\_little\_lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funky_little_lee)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-equivalent-of-what-are-you-gonna-do/721556/1 "2015-06-03T18:04:19Z")

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When “What are you gonna do?” means, “That’s just how it is, so just accept it.”

Example sentence: “We have too many items for the express lane, so we have to get in line behind 10 people in the regular lane. (Shrug) Well, whattaya gonna do?”

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**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-equivalent-of-what-are-you-gonna-do/721556/2 "2015-06-03T18:16:24Z")

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In European Spanish there’s a fairly direct equivalent “Qué se le va a hacer.” -What can you do (about it)- or even “Qué le vamos a hacer.” - What are we going to do (about it).

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**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-equivalent-of-what-are-you-gonna-do/721556/3 "2015-06-04T07:40:51Z")

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I would imagine in this case, it’s closer to the meaning “nothing (else) can be done about (the situation).”

So a quick translation to Spanish could be, “No se puede evitar.” meaning “It can’t be avoided.”

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-equivalent-of-what-are-you-gonna-do/721556/4 "2015-06-04T11:13:57Z")

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“Ni modo” works. It’s a common expression meaning “oh, well,” and can convey “that didn’t work, but what the heck, life goes on.”