华丽的写作虽然华丽，但对于词汇量或是语法功底不好的人来说，可读性常常不是很强，所以日常写作要简明精炼，这就需要平时的点滴积累，特别是一些短语的使用。在英语中表达”徒劳无益，白费力气，无用的或无效果的“，可以用单词”useless 或 vain“，它们都是形容词，例如： useless: It's useless to fire away with such trivial details.喋喋不休地谈这些琐碎细节是无用的。He knew it was useless to protest.他知道抗议是徒劳的。vain:It was a vain attempt to shift the responsibility for the murder to somebody else.试图将谋杀的罪责转嫁给他人是徒劳的。
vain 常用于组合 in vain 或 all in vain，译为“徒劳无益，白费力气或枉费心机”等，例如：It seems as if the merger will go through and all our hard work has been in vain.看来合并会成功的，我们所有的努力都白费了。Your protests are all in vain. He will get the promotion as he is the boss's son.你的抗议都是徒劳的。他将得到提升，因为他是老板的儿子。All of my studying was in vain. The professor asked questions that were not in the material.我所有的学习都白费了。教授问了学习材料中没有的问题。I will not let my efforts go in vain. And I will keep trying until I win.我不会让我的努力白费。我会继续努力直到我赢。From the day I lost my dog, I am trying to find it but all in vain.从我丢狗的那天起，我就一直在努力寻找它，但都是徒劳。In the end, the captain's hard work was all in vain by the loss of the match.最后，由于比赛失利，队长的努力都白费了。其实表达“徒劳无益或白费力气”还可以使用一个习语 flog/beat a dead horse，例如： You keep trying to convince him to join your company, but I think you're flogging a dead horse. He's happy where he is.你一直想说服他加入你的公司，但我认为你是白费力气。他在那里很开心。
