Re: How does one "try" in japanese?

From: Bart Mathias (mathias_at_hawaii.edu)
Date: 02/26/05 

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:07:24 GMT

Konrad Den Ende wrote:
> I'm unclear on how to say "i try to do sth". This far i have
> a number of theories.
> 何かをしょうとしる
> 何かをしょうとしている
> 何かをやってみる
> 何かを試みる
>
> Are those equivalent? Alike? Do they mean what i assume
> they do? Any feed-back is welcome...

Well, you forgot to tell us what you assume each means.

You have a "typo" in the first, which should be

何かをしょうとする

This means to make as to do something ("to do as let's do something")
and can mean make an attempt to do it, or to be about to do it,
depending on context. The ...している version just adds the notion of
duration.

何かをやってみる or 何かをしてみる or in general <verb>てみる usually
means to try doing something to see if it produces satisfactory results.
  You probably have some objective other than 何か itself.

何かを試みる is more like -てみる than -(y)oうとする, if 何か is an
activity or action, but has broader uses, at least to the extent that
you could 味を試みる. (But I'm surprised to realize that I have rarely
used this verb, even beyond the rarity with which I use any Japanese
verb at all.)

Bart

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How to see this grammatically?
    ... > Konrad Den Ende wrote: ... Allthough i'd expect that to be ... According to $B$2$s$-(B there are three types of verb ... number two means ongoing action while ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: How does one "try" in japanese?
    ... Konrad Den Ende wrote: ... Alike? ... Any feed-back is welcome... ... dareka dareka@inter7NS.jp ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: Sentence in Genki 1
    ... Konrad Den Ende wrote: ... > On page 173 there's a new verb: ... This is an attempt to reply to something posted in UTF8. ... Mozilla has it set to ISO2022JP for the reply. ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: The difference between "begin" and "begin"
    ... > Konrad Den Ende wrote: ... >> Any words of warning about some verb that are ... > 焼く to cook, bake; ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: How does one "try" in japanese?
    ... dareka wrote: ... > Konrad Den Ende wrote: ... Alike? ... Dan ...
    (sci.lang.japan)