Guide to Japanese

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

見る(み・る)
to see; to watch
切る(き・る) u-verb
to cut
お好み焼き(お・この・み・や・き)
okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pancake)
初めて(はじ・めて)
for the first time
食べる(た・べる) ru-verb
to eat
とても
very
おいしい i-adj
tasty
お酒(お・さけ)
alcohol
飲む(の・む) u-verb
to drink
すごい
to a great extent
眠い(ねむ・い) i-adj
sleepy
なる u-verb
to become
新しい(あたら・しい) i-adj
new
デパート(de pa a to)
department store
行く(い・く) u-verb
to go
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.

To try something out

Conjugate the verb to the te-form and add みる.

Example: 切る → 切って → 切ってみる

You can treat the whole result as a regular verb just as you would with 見る.

Example: 切ってみる、切ってみた、切ってみない、切ってみなかった

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

する exception
to do
言う(い・う) u-verb
to say
思う(おも・う) u-verb
to think
考える(かんが・える) ru-verb
to think
見る(み・る) ru-verb
to see
行く(い・く) u-verb
to go
毎日(まい・にち)
everyday
勉強(べん・きょう)
study
避ける(さ・ける) ru-verb
to avoid
無理矢理(む・り・や・り)
forcibly
部屋(へ・や)
room
入る(はい・る) u-verb
to enter
早い(はや・い) i-adj
fast; early
寝る(ね・る) ru-verb
to sleep
結局(けっ・きょく)
eventually
徹夜(てつ・や)
staying up all night
お酒(お・さけ)
alcohol
飲む(の・む) u-verb
to drink
{奥さん【おく・さん}
wife (polite)
止める(と・める) ru-verb
to stop
なるべく
as much as possible
ジム(ji mu)
gym
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.

Attempting a certain action

Change the verb to the volitional form and add とする.

Examples

  1. 見る → 見よう → 見ようとする
  2. 行く → 行こう → 行こうとする

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.