Breakdown of Мы безуспешно пытались терпеть этот шум.
мы
we
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
шум
noise
пытаться
to try, to attempt
терпеть
to endure
безуспешно
unsuccessfully
Questions & Answers about Мы безуспешно пытались терпеть этот шум.
Since this lesson is about всё-таки (nevertheless / all the same), where would it go if we wanted to say "We nevertheless tried to endure this noise"?
You would typically place it near the beginning of the sentence to set the concessive tone. Мы всё-таки безуспешно пытались терпеть этот шум means "We nevertheless tried..." If you place it right before the infinitive (...пытались всё-таки терпеть...), it emphasizes the specific action you decided to do anyway: "we tried to nevertheless endure it".
Why is пытались (imperfective) used here instead of попытались (perfective), since the attempt failed and is now over?
While попытались is grammatically correct for a single, completed attempt, using the imperfective пытались emphasizes the ongoing process of trying over a period of time. Combined with безуспешно (unsuccessfully), it creates the feeling that they kept trying and trying to endure the noise over a stretch of time, rather than just making one quick attempt.
Could we use старались instead of пытались in this context?
Yes, but the nuance shifts. Пытаться means "to attempt," which pairs perfectly with concepts of success or failure (безуспешно). Стараться means "to strive" or "to make an effort." Saying мы старались терпеть focuses heavily on the intense mental or physical effort you were putting into holding your patience, rather than just the attempt itself.
Why is the infinitive verb терпеть imperfective here instead of the perfective потерпеть?
Терпеть refers to the continuous state of enduring or tolerating something. If you used the perfective потерпеть, it would mean to endure something for a limited, specific amount of time (like saying "bear with it for just a minute"). Because they were trying to tolerate an ongoing, continuous annoyance, the imperfective aspect is a much better fit.
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