I’ve come across the example sentence 「今度試してみようっと！」 and I’ve just realised that, presumably, 試してみよう means “will try to try”. Is that right? Is this a redundancy?
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As I understand it 試す is more “test” than “try” - so it means to attempt something with the intent of drawing some conclusion about it, rather than just seeing what the result will be (as 試みる would indicate).
So 試してみる would mean to make an attempt at testing.
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Thanks, I think I get it. So for “Try to eat your greens”, a familiar act that just requires some willpower, it would be みる, for “Try covering your greens in something you do like”, it might be 試みる, and for “Try putting your greens under the table to see if your parents realise” might be 試す?
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I’m thinking the latter two could be both 試す or 試みる depending on context and nuance. English doesn’t make much of a distinction between “trying something but you don’t know what will happen” and “trying something (probably repeatedly) with some goal in mind”. Or even “make an attempt in the hope that you’ll succeed” which is what modifying a verb with 〜てみる expresses as I understand it.
That said, from what I can see in sentences the difference seems subtle and I’m really not entirely clear on the nuance between 試す and 試みる and when to use which myself.
That said, I’m not sure the difference between those is very relevant to your original question - 試みてみる would be roughly the same thing as I see it, it’s just that in English we translate both “do this and see what happens” and “do this in an effort to succeed” as “try” even though they’re different concepts, and this is what probably causes your confusion. 試みる can also mean the latter though, so 試みてみる could be redundant depending on context.
I was wrong：
Ignore what I wrote above. 試みてみる makes no sense, the meaning is entirely different from 試す.
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試みる is about trying to see if something can actually be done. 脱出を試みる (try an escape)
試す is about determining if something will go well or not, if it’s good or bad, if it’s true or false. 学力を試す test / evaluate academic ability
They’re not interchangeable in those example sentences.
I don’t feel like people use 試みる in conversation very much. Something like やってみる would be more likely.
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Ah, that’s a lot clearer than the explanations I’ve found online, thanks! I’ll correct my reply because parts of it make zero sense with that in mind.
There’s definitely overlap. I’ve seen definitions for 試みる that use ためす and やってみる. But they become a little clearer when you pin down ways they can’t be used.
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Thanks, both. So in my example sentences, if anything the two 試 sentences should have the words switched? Since “Try covering your greens in something you do like” is about testing a method and “Try putting your greens under the table to see if your parents realise” is about testing the possibility of something.
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