てみる (temiru) Meaning Japanese Grammar - Try To Do

The form てみる is used to express the verb try, in the sense of trying to do something.

In English, when we use the verb to try we can mean 2 different things:

• Trying a new thing for the first time or without a specific goal (I'd like to try that dish)
• Make an effort to try to achieve a goal (I'll try my best)

These two meanings are expressed by two different grammatical forms in Japanese:

• When we intend to try for the first time or without a goal, we use the form てみる
• When we intend to try to reach a goal, we use ようとする

Specifically てみる is used when we try to do something just to see how it is or what will happen, and also when we try to do something that we expect to have a certain result (let's try to do this).

Although てみる simply translates to try, the literal meaning is more like let's try and see

When てみる is used in the past tense form てみた it implies that the attempt to do something was successful (unless otherwise specified)

The use of てみる does not imply any negative consequences in trying and failing

How the expression てみる is formed

To use the form てみる just conjugate the verb we "try to do" in the te form and add みる:

Examples てみる

In this example we see how the meaning of try is not always explicit in translation. The verb 考(かんが)える means to think (in the sense of consider). Conjugated in the form てみる it expresses the meaning of try to think about, which is then translated as think about it, without using the word try.

A short comment on a travel video using てみる in the volitional form てみたい: I want to try to do, I would like to do: