新课标小学英语国际音标入门：try的用法

　　Today’s tip is on the difference in meaning between “try to do something” and “try doing something”.

　　

　　今天的小贴士是“尝试做某事”和“尝试做某事”之间的意思上的不同。

　　

　　“try” plus an infinitive, that is, “to” plus a verb, such as “try to learn” “try to open” “try to read” means to make an effort to do it. “try” plus a gerund, that is, verb-ing, such as “try opening”, “try turning on”, “try giving” means to experiment with a new or different approach to see if it works.

　　

　　“尝试”加上一个不定式，即“到”加一个动词，如“试着学习”、“试着打开”、“试着读”，意思是努力去做。“尝试”加一个动名词，是动词，如“看看”、“把”、“让”的意思是尝试一种新的或不同的看看它的方法。

　　

　　Let’s look at some exams. “I’m trying to learn Taiwanese.” This means I’m making an effort to do it. I’m taking a Taiwanese class, doing my homework and speaking in Taiwanese whenever I can. Here’s another exam. “I tried to open the window.” This sentence means I pulled the window up, but it did not go up, so I pushed the window up, but it still did not open. I made an effort to open the window, but I could not open it. On the other hand, “I tried opening the window” means that I did open the window and that I opened it for a reason. I was hot and I wanted to cool off. I tried opening the window, but that didn’t help. So I tried turning on the fan, but I was still hot. So I tried taking off some of my clothes, but that didn’t work either. Finally, I turned on the air conditioner, and that finally succeeded in helping me cool off. I experimented with many things to see what would work.

　　

　　让我们看一些例子。“我在试着学台语”，这意味着我正在努力做这件事。我要上台语课，做作业，尽可能用台语讲话。这是另一个例子。“我试着打开窗户”，这句话的意思是我把窗户拉上来，但没有上升，所以我把窗户推了上去，但它仍然没有打开。我努力打开窗户，但我打不开。另一方面，“我试着打开窗户”意味着我打开了窗户，我打开它是有原因的。我很热，我想凉快一下。我试着打开窗户，但那没有用。所以我试着打开风扇，但是我还是热的。所以我试着脱下我的一些衣服，但那也不起作用。 后，我打开空调，终于成功地帮我降温了。我尝试了很多东西，看看会有什么效果。

　　

　　So remember, “try to do something” is to make an effort, and “try doing something” is to experiment with different way to achieve your purpose.

　　

　　所以记住，“尝试做某事”就是努力，而“尝试做某事”就是用不同的方法来达到你的目的。