60 - She does't even try to study!

Today is the last day of volitional verb torture.

Rejoice!

Do you ever feel like life is full of rules and expectations?

Situation: You're a student.
Expectation: You must study!

Situation: You're a chain-smoker.
Expectation: You must quit smoking!

Situation: You cut the heads off of your sister's Barbie dolls.
Expectation: You must apologize!

But what about those of us who don't want to meet expectations?

Those of who don't want to study, quit smoking, or apologize?

We have grammar for those people:

Grammar Formula
Volitional VERB + としない
= (he/she) doesn't even think about VERB-ing

For example...

VERBS

勉強する
(benkyou suru; "to study")

やめる
(yameru; "to quit; to stop")

謝る
(ayamaru; "to apologize")

VOLITIONAL FORM

勉強しよう
(benkyou shiyou; "let's study // I think I'll study")

やめよう
(yameyou; "let's quit; let's stop // I think I'll quit/stop")

謝ろう
(ayamarou; "let's apologize // I think I'll apologize")

(Note: If you don't know how to form these conjugations, check out the google doc.)

DOESN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT VERB-ing

勉強しようとしない
(benkyou shiyou to shinai; "doesn't even think about studying")

やめようとしない
(yameyou to shinai; "doesn't even think about quitting/stopping")

謝ろうとしない (ayamarou to shinai; "doesn't even think about apologizing")

One of my fancy grammar books explains this construction like this:

Someone other than the speaker has strong volition not to do what is expected. Cannot be used in first person.

In other words, we can use this to complain about people that don't follow the rules or do what they're supposed to!

Full Sentence Examples:

(もうすぐテストなのに) 勉強しようとしない。
(mousugu tesuto nano ni,) benkyou shiyou to shinai.
(Even though he has a test coming up) He doesn't even think about studying.
(Literally: "soon + test + although + let's study + としない.")

(タバコやめてって言っても、) やめようとしない。
(tabako yamete tte ittemo,) yameyou to shinai.
(Even if I ask her to quit smoking,) She doesn't even consider quitting.
(Literally: "tobacco + quit and + って + say but + let's quit + としない.")

(妹のおもちゃ壊しても、) 謝ろうとしない。
(imouto no omocha kowashitemo,) ayamarou to shinai.
(Even when he breaks his little sister's toys,) He doesn't even think about apologizing.
(Literally: "younger sister + の + toys + break but + let's apologize + としない.")


Why this makes sense.

Remember back in Lesson #55, when we had the following sweet photos/examples?

これ買おう。
kore kaou.
I think I'll buy this.

Well now all we're doing is adding ~としない (-to shinai) to the end, which means "does not do."

So if I said:

...it means...

勉強しよう。
benkyou shiyou.
I think I'll study.

Yeah?

But if you think I should be studying, but I'm not, then you could say to someone:

勉強しようとしない。
benkyou shiyou to shinai.
He doesn't even think about studying.

It could help to think of it like this:

勉強しよう + と + しない
benkyou shiyou + to + shinai
"I think I'll study + [quote marker] + does not do."
He doesn't even think about studying.

That kind of makes sense, right?

If not, then blame my lackluster teaching skills. ^_^


Nuance Ninja Training

Using V ようとしない is for talking about what someone should do, but doesn't.

It is very similar, but still a little different from talking about what someone won't do for you.

For that, we use ~てくれない (-te kurenai).

We looked at using "Te-Form + くれない?" to make casual requests wayyyyyy back in Lesson #20.

Today's usage is not a question, though, but rather a complaint about someone that won't do something for you or won't fulfill your request.

くれない (kurenai) basically means "won't give me," so attaching it to a te-form verb basically means "won't give me VERB."

Examples explain better than I do:

(もうすぐテストなのに) 勉強してくれない。
(mousugu tesuto na no ni,) benkyou shite kurenai.
(Even though he has a test coming up) He won't study (for me).
(Literally: "soon + test + although + study and + won't give me.")
(Note: It sounds like the speaker has some personal reason for wanting him to do well on the test.)

(タバコやめてって言っても、)やめてくれない。
(tabako yamete tte ittemo,) yamete kurenai.
(Even though I ask her to quit smoking,) She won't quit (for me).
(Literally: "tobacco + quit and + say but + quit and + wont' give me.")

(あたしのおもちゃ壊したのに) 謝ってくれない。
(atashi no omocha kowashita no ni,) ayamatte kurenai.
(Even though he broke my toy,) He won't apologize (to me).
(Literally: "I + の + toy + broke + although + apologize and + won't give me.")

(Note: I changed "little sister" to "I" and put this in the past tense with のに, "although," because if we said 壊しても [kowashitemo] it sounds like he regularly breaks her toys... not just this once.. which I thought would be less common.)

I think I use & hear this one more often than I use V ようとしない.

That's all!

Death to volitional verbs!

Here's a wrap-up of everything we saw:

1 食べよう
2 食べよっう
3 食べようと
4 食べようかな~
5 食べようと思う
6 食べようと思ってる
7 食べようとしてる
8 食べようとしたけど...
9 食べようとしてる
10 食べようとしたけど...
11 食べようとしない

...with the following readings...

1 tabeyou
2 tabeyou
3 tabeyou to
4 tabeyou ka naa
5 tabeyou to omou
6 tabeyou to omotteru
7 tabeyou to shiteru
8 tabeyou to shita kedo
9 tabeyou to shiteru
10
tabeyou to shita kedo
11 tabeyou to shinai

...can mean...

1 Let's eat.
2 I think I'll eat.
3 I think I'll eat.
4 Hmm... I think maybe I'll eat...
5 I think I'll eat.
6 I've been thinking about eating.
7 I'm trying to eat.
8 I tried to eat, but...
9 [He's] about to eat.
10 Just when I was about to eat...
11 He doesn't even try to eat...

For lots of recaps, you may want to look at the previous lesson, #59.

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