Trying or attempting something

Let’s try some stuff

In English, we use the word, “try” to mean both “to try something out” and “to make an effort to do something”. In Japanese, these are separate grammatical expressions. For instance, “I tried the cherry flavor” and “I tried to do homework” mean quite different things and though English does not make a distinction, Japanese does.

To try something out

Vocabulary

1. 見る 【み・る】 – to see; to watch
2. 切る 【き・る】 (u-verb) – to cut
3. お好み焼き 【お・この・み・や・き】 – okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pancake)
4. 初めて 【はじ・めて】 – for the first time
5. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
6. とても – very
7. おいしい (i-adj) – tasty
8. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
9. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
10. すごい (i-adj) – to a great extent
11. 眠い 【ねむ・い】(i-adj) – sleepy
12. なる (u-verb) – to become
13. 新しい 【あたら・しい】(i-adj) – new
14. デパート – department store
15. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
16. 広島 【ひろ・しま】 – Hiroshima

To try something out, you simply need to change the verb to the te-form and add 「みる」. If it helps you to remember, you can think of it as a sequence of an action and then seeing the result. In fact 「みる」 conjugates just like 「見る」. However, just like the 「～てほしい」 grammar we learned, this is a set phrase and 「みる」 is usually written in hiragana.

Examples

1. お好み焼きを初めて食べてみたけど、とてもおいしかった！
   I tried eating okonomiyaki for the first time and it was very tasty!
2. お酒を飲んでみましたが、すごく眠くなりました。
   I tried drinking alcohol and I became extremely sleepy.
3. 新しいデパートに行ってみる。
   I’m going to check out the new department store.
4. 広島のお好み焼きを食べてみたい！
   I want to try eating Hiroshima okonomiyaki!

To attempt to do something

Vocabulary

1. する (exception) – to do
2. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
3. 思う 【おも・う】 (u-verb) – to think
4. 考える 【かんが・える】 (ru-verb) – to think
5. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
6. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
7. 毎日 【まい・にち】 – everyday
8. 勉強 【べん・きょう】 – study
9. 避ける 【さ・ける】 (ru-verb) – to avoid
10. 無理矢理 【む・り・や・り】 – forcibly
11. 部屋 【へ・や】 – room
12. 入る 【はい・る】 (u-verb) – to enter
13. 早い 【はや・い】 (i-adj) – fast; early
14. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) – to sleep
15. 結局 【けっ・きょく】 – eventually
16. 徹夜 【てつ・や】 – staying up all night
17. お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
18. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
19. 奥さん【おく・さん】 – wife (polite)
20. 止める 【と・める】 (ru-verb) – to stop
21. なるべく – as much as possible
22. ジム – gym
23. 決める 【き・める】 (ru-verb) – to decide

We already learned that the volitional form was used to indicate a will to set out to do something. If you guessed that this next grammar for attempting to do something would involve the volitional form, you were right. To say that you tried (as in attempted) to do something, you need to conjugate the verb into the volitional, enclose it in a quotation (so that we can perform an action on the clause) and finally add the verb 「する」. Or put more simply, you just add 「とする」 to the volitional form of the verb. This is simply an extension of the quoted relative clause from the last section. Instead of saying the quote （言う） or treating it as a thought （思う、考える）, we are simply doing it with 「する」.

Examples

1. 毎日、勉強を避けようとする。
   Everyday, she attempts to avoid study.
2. 無理矢理に部屋に入ろうとしている。
   He is attempting to force his way into the room.
3. 早く寝ようとしたけど、結局は徹夜した。
   I attempted to sleep early but ended up staying up all night.
4. お酒を飲もうとしたが、奥さんが止めた。
   He tried to drink alcohol but his wife stopped him.

Though we use the verb 「する」 to say, “to do attempt”, we can use different verbs to do other things with the attempt. For instance, we can use the verb 「決める」 to say, “decide to attempt to do [X]”. Here are some examples of other actions carried out on the attempt.

1. 勉強をなるべく避けようと思った。
   I thought I would attempt to avoid studying as much as possible.
2. 毎日ジムに行こうと決めた。
   Decided to attempt to go to gym everyday.

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