Attach みる to a te-form and you get "do X and see" — try the sushi, ask the teacher, go there once and find out what it's like. The auxiliary comes straight from 見る "to see," and that origin is the key to the whole pattern: you do the action with an eye on its result. This page shows you how to build it, the everyday forms it appears in, and the one thing English speakers get wrong every time — treating it like English "try to," which is a completely different idea.
The form
Take the te-form and add みる. As an auxiliary it is conventionally written in hiragana (みる), not the kanji 見る — that spelling is reserved for literal seeing. みる conjugates as a normal ichidan verb: みます, みた, みて, みよう, みたい.
| Verb | て-form |
|
|---|---|---|
| 食べる (to eat) | 食べて | 食べてみる |
| 聞く (to ask / listen) | 聞いて | 聞いてみる |
| 行く (to go) | 行って | 行ってみる |
| やる (to do) | やって | やってみる |
The core meaning: do it on a trial basis, to find out
〜てみる means you actually perform the action, experimentally, to discover what happens or what it's like. The doing is real; the trial framing is what みる adds. Think "give it a try," "do it and see," "sample it."
この寿司、わさびが効いてておいしいよ。食べてみて。
kono sushi, wasabi ga kiitete oishii yo. tabete mite
This sushi has a nice wasabi kick — go on, try it.
分からなかったら、先生に聞いてみます。
wakaranakattara, sensei ni kiite mimasu
If I don't get it, I'll try asking the teacher.
新しくできたカフェ、行ってみたけど、なかなか良かった。
atarashiku dekita kafe, itte mita kedo, nakanaka yokatta
I tried that new café that opened — it was pretty good, actually.
In every case the person genuinely eats, asks, or goes. The nuance is that they're doing it to see how it turns out, not because it's routine.
The everyday forms
〜てみる rarely stands alone in its plain shape; it usually rides inside one of these very common frames:
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 〜てみたい | "want to try …-ing" |
| 〜てみよう / 〜てみましょう | "let's give it a try" |
| 〜てみて / 〜てみてください | "go ahead and try …-ing" |
| 〜てみたら？ / 〜てみたらどう？ | "why don't you try …-ing?" (suggestion) |
| 〜てみないと | "unless you try, (you won't know)" |
一度でいいから、着物を着てみたい。
ichido de ii kara, kimono o kite mitai
I'd love to try wearing a kimono, even just once.
迷ってても始まらないし、とりあえずやってみよう。
mayottete mo hajimaranai shi, toriaezu yatte miyō
We won't get anywhere by dithering — let's just give it a shot.
難しそうだけど、自分でやってみないと分からないよ。
muzukashisō da kedo, jibun de yatte minai to wakaranai yo
It looks hard, but you won't know until you try it yourself.
A favorite pairing is with the 〜たら discovery conditional: do X on a trial basis, and then find out the result.
思い切って食べてみたら、意外とおいしかった。
omoikitte tabete mitara, igai to oishikatta
I took the plunge and tried it, and it was surprisingly tasty.
The trap: 〜てみる is NOT English "try to"
This is where nearly every English speaker slips. English "try" is ambiguous. It can mean:
- Attempt and succeed — "I tried the soup" (I tasted it).
- Merely attempt, possibly failing — "I tried to open the door" (it may still be shut).
〜てみる only ever covers sense 1. The action is actually carried out; みる then evaluates the result. So 食べてみた means "I tried it — and I ate it," never "I tried to eat but couldn't." The successful-sampling nuance is the entire point of the construction.
For sense 2 — genuinely attempting something you might fail at, the "struggle" reading — Japanese uses a different structure entirely: 〜ようとする (see 〜ようとする: attempting).
ドアを開けようとしたけど、鍵がかかっていた。
doa o akeyō to shita kedo, kagi ga kakatte ita
I tried to open the door, but it was locked. (attempt that failed — 〜ようとする)
このドア、開けてみて。
kono doa, akete mite
Try opening this door (and see what happens). (you actually open it — 〜てみる)
Line them up: 食べようとした = "I tried to eat (and may not have managed)"; 食べてみた = "I gave it a try, tasting it." If you can fail at it, it's 〜ようとする; if you sample it and judge the outcome, it's 〜てみる.
見てみる is real — and idiomatic
Beginners hesitate to say 見てみる, thinking it's a redundant "see-see." It isn't. 見る here is the literal main verb ("look at"), and みる is the auxiliary ("and see how it is"): 見てみる = "take a look (and find out)." It's completely natural.
ちょっとこの資料、見てみるね。
chotto kono shiryō, mite miru ne
Let me take a look at this document (and see).
Register
〜てみる is register-neutral. It works in casual speech (やってみる), polite speech (やってみます), and gentle suggestions (やってみたらどうですか). It carries a soft, low-pressure feel — inviting someone to sample rather than commit — which is why it's the natural, non-pushy way to recommend something. There's a mild permission blend too: 〜てみてもいい ("you may give it a try"), which connects to 〜てもいい permission.
Common mistakes
❌ 食べてみたけど、食べられなかった。
tabete mita kedo, taberarenakatta
Incorrect — 食べてみた already means you ate it, so 'couldn't eat' contradicts it.
✅ 食べようとしたけど、食べられなかった。
tabeyō to shita kedo, taberarenakatta
I tried to eat it, but I couldn't. (attempt = 〜ようとする)
❌ この寿司を食べる見て。
kono sushi o taberu mite
Incorrect — みる attaches to the te-form (食べて), not the dictionary form.
✅ この寿司を食べてみて。
kono sushi o tabete mite
Try this sushi.
❌ 先生に聞いて見ます。
sensei ni kiite mimasu
Disfavored — as an auxiliary, みる is written in hiragana; the kanji 見 is for literal seeing.
✅ 先生に聞いてみます。
sensei ni kiite mimasu
I'll try asking the teacher.
❌ 頑張ってみたけど、無理だった。
ganbatte mita kedo, muri datta
Odd for 'I tried hard but it was impossible' — 〜てみる isn't for straining effort; use 頑張ったけど or 〜ようとした.
✅ 頑張ったけど、無理だった。
ganbatta kedo, muri datta
I gave it my all, but it was impossible.
Key takeaways
- te-form + みる = "do X on a trial basis, to see how it turns out." From 見る "to see" — you act with an eye on the result.
- The action is actually carried out: 食べてみた = "I tried it and ate it," never "I tried but couldn't."
- For a mere attempt you might fail at ("try to," struggling), use 〜ようとする instead.
- Written in hiragana (みる) as an auxiliary; 見てみる ("take a look and see") is perfectly natural.
- Lives inside everyday frames: てみたい, てみよう, てみて, てみたら？ — the soft, inviting way to suggest sampling something.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- te + Auxiliary Verbs: The Helper FamilyN3 — A map of the 補助動詞 family — a te-form plus a grammaticalized helper (おく, しまう, みる, いく, くる, いる, ある) whose literal meaning has faded into pure aspect or attitude.
- 〜てしまう／〜ちゃう: Completion & RegretN3 — How te-form + しまう seals an action as finished — reading it as satisfying completion or as an 'oops, irreversibly' regret, plus the casual 〜ちゃう／〜じゃう contractions and their voicing split.
- 〜ておく／〜とく: Doing in AdvanceN3 — How 〜ておく (from 置く 'to place') means doing something in advance or leaving it done for later benefit — plus the casual 〜とく／〜どく and the useful やめておく 'I'll pass.'
- 〜てほしい: Wanting Someone Else to ActN3 — How te-form + ほしい expresses wanting another person to do something — the に-marked agent, the negative 〜ないでほしい, and why it splits from 〜たい by who actually performs the action.
- 〜てみる: Try DoingN4 — The sampling nuance of te-form + みる — you carry an action out to see how it turns out, which is why it means 'try it and see,' never the thwarted 'try to (and fail)' of ようとする.