Page 348 - Basic Japanese

7.6. Gerund (te-form) + みる miru

An expression consisting of the gerund of a verb + some

form of the verb miru ‘sees’ has two slightly different
meanings: ‘does something to see (how it will turn out),

‘does something and finds out,’ or ‘tries to do something (to
see how it will turn out).’ Compare this with the meaning of

the tentative + to suru ‘tries to do (but doesn’t succeed),
starts to do’ discussed in 7.4.

あのカラオケボックスに行ってみましょうか。

Ano karaoke bokkusu ni itte mimashō ka.
Shall we try going to that karaoke box?

日本に住んでみたいです。

Nihon ni sunde mitai desu.

I want to try living in Japan.

お兄ちゃんに聞いてみるから, ちょっと待ってて。
Onīchan ni kiite miru kara, chotto mattete.

I’ll just find out from my brother, so wait here a
minute.

大家さんに頼んでみたんですが，無駄でした。
Ōya-san ni tanonde mita n desu ga, muda deshita.
I tried asking my landlord, but it was in vain.

7.7. Desideratives

To say ‘I want to do something,’ you use a special kind of

adjective that is derived from verb infinitives. The infinitive,
you will recall, is the verb form that ends in ZERO for vowel