Sunday, February 26, 2006
Try to...
Another quick and easy one for today, but nonetheless, it's a handy one to pull out.
Your Japanese friend has taken out to show you some Japanese culture. You end up in a restaurant and, not knowing your 枝豆 from your 落花生, you order the first thing you see. Minutes later, a plate of nice, fresh 馬刺し turns up. My, it looks damn tasty... until you ask what it is.
At this point, you may want to do one of several things. But, the most diplomatic is say something like:
美味しそうですよ。でも、ちょっとおなかがいっぱい。食べてみる。
Which should translate to 'yum, that looks tasty. But, I am a little full. I'll try to eat it'. The important bit is 食べてみる. You must recognise the use of 食べる and probably notice it's been ーて conjugated. The clever bit is to slap みる on the end. I guess it's literally saying 'eat and see'. If you squint, it kinda looks like 'try', doesn't it?
The structure is: verb clause （－て）＋みる。
English: I tried to wake up early this morning.
Jenglish: [this morning][early][wake up + tried]
日本語： 今朝、早く起きてみた。
またね
Your Japanese friend has taken out to show you some Japanese culture. You end up in a restaurant and, not knowing your 枝豆 from your 落花生, you order the first thing you see. Minutes later, a plate of nice, fresh 馬刺し turns up. My, it looks damn tasty... until you ask what it is.
At this point, you may want to do one of several things. But, the most diplomatic is say something like:
美味しそうですよ。でも、ちょっとおなかがいっぱい。食べてみる。
Which should translate to 'yum, that looks tasty. But, I am a little full. I'll try to eat it'. The important bit is 食べてみる. You must recognise the use of 食べる and probably notice it's been ーて conjugated. The clever bit is to slap みる on the end. I guess it's literally saying 'eat and see'. If you squint, it kinda looks like 'try', doesn't it?
The structure is: verb clause （－て）＋みる。
English: I tried to wake up early this morning.
Jenglish: [this morning][early][wake up + tried]
日本語： 今朝、早く起きてみた。
またね
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