Trying things in Japanese
Do or do not. There is no try.
-Yoda
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
To try something out, you simply need to change the verb to the te-form and add 「」. If it helps you to remember, you can think of it as a
sequence of an action and then seeing the result. In fact 「」 conjugates just like 「」.
However, just like the 「～て」 grammar we learned, this is a set phrase and 「」 is usually
written in hiragana.
Summary
- To say you tried something out, take the action, conjugate it to the te-form and add 「」.
- 例） → →
- You can treat the whole result as a regular verb just as you would with 「」.
- 例） 、、、
Examples
（１） をけど、！- I tried eating okonomiyaki for the first time and it was very tasty!
（２） をが、。- I tried drinking alcohol and I became extremely sleepy.
（３） に。- I'm going to check out the new department store.
（４） のを！- I want to try eating Hiroshima okonomiyaki!
To attempt to do something
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 「」. Or put more simply, you just add 「と」 to the volitional form of the verb. This is simply an extension of the
quoted subordinate clause from the last section. Instead of saying the quote （） or treating it as a thought （、）,
we are simply doing it with 「」.
Summary
- To say that you are attempting a certain action, convert the action to the volitional form and add 「と」.
- 例） → → と
- 例） → → と
Examples
（１） 、をと。
- Everyday, she attempts to avoid study.
（２） ににと。
- He is attempting to force his way into the room.
（３） とけど、は。
- I attempted to sleep early but ended up staying up all night.
（４） をとが、が。
- He tried to drink alcohol but his wife stopped him.
Though we use the verb 「」 to say, "to do attempt", we can use different verbs to do other things with the
attempt. For instance, we can use the verb 「」 to say, "decide to attempt to do [X]". Here
are some examples of other actions carried out on the attempt.
（１） をと。
- I thought I would attempt to avoid studying as much as possible.
（２） にと。
- Decided to attempt to go to gym everyday.
This page has last been revised on 2005/3/26