Tried To Do It
“A great man is always willing to be little.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
You know how to say you’ll try to do something, what about “tried to do something”? Let’s figure this out using some Spock logic.
Can you make te-form past tense?
No, you can’t. Te-form is just positive and negative (たべて, たべないで). So, that can’t be where the past tense portion goes.
What about the みる? Is it a verb? Oh, nice, turns out it is. Can you conjugate it? Sure, why not.
みる (to try) → みた (tried)
Let’s take a look at how this looks
食べてみる
Try to eat
a 食べてみた
Tried to eat
のんでみる
Try to drink
a のんでみた
Tried to drink
The “try” part is what’s getting conjugating, so it’s only natural that the “try” goes to “tried” in English. You couldn’t say something like “I ate try” or “I ate tried,” right? Only the “try” part can change in English, just like in Japanese as well.
Let’s take a look at this in action, now.