How to say 'try' using ลอง .. ดู

[xkkpafi]

What would be the position of a verb that someone/something is trying to do when using ลอง .. ดู. For example if you ask someone what language they are trying to speak, does the พูด come between ลอง .. ดู as in: คุณลองพูดดูภาษา อะไรครับ or would it come after: คุณลองดูพูดภาษา อะไร. Given the high probability that both are wrong, what would be the correct form of this question in Thai?

 

[ColeBOzbourne]

This doesn't specifically answer your question about the position of a verb, but is an example from one of my books:

 

Would you like to try the crab? จะลองปูมั้ย

 

OK, I'll give it a try. โอเค จะลองดู

 

In the case of 'trying' to speak a language, I would consider using: พยายาม

 

I understand ลอง to mean to test or sample something. Whereas พยายาม means to attempt or put an effort into something.

[tifino]

 when this gets too hard...

 - a local would prefer to say         ขี้เกียจ        

[ColeBOzbourne]

Just to clarify my example above with the crab. They were not just going to 'try' it as in just give it a taste, that would be ชิม. They were going to order the crab and 'try' having it as part of their meal.

[KeeTua]

Cole gave a good explanation of when to use ลอง or ลองดู and I agree a better fit for that particular situation would be to use พยายาม.

คุณพยายามพูดภาษาอะไรครับ

[digbeth]

พยายาม is good 

there seem to be difference between พยายาม attempt and ลอง try (on) 

 

you can ask the question without the word try/attempt at all too

 

คุณกำลังจะพูดภาษาอะไร

what language are you presently speaking

 

คุณจะพูดภาษาอะไร

what language are you

 

you can omit many prepositions in thai

คุณพูดภาษาอะไร is understood but comes of as rude

 

คุณพูดภาษาอะไรอยู่ (ครับ) is polite

 

 

[xkkpafi]

On 6/20/2021 at 1:33 PM, digbeth said:

พยายาม is good 

there seem to be difference between พยายาม attempt and ลอง try (on) 

 

you can ask the question without the word try/attempt at all too

 

คุณกำลังจะพูดภาษาอะไร

what language are you presently speaking

 

คุณจะพูดภาษาอะไร

what language are you

 

you can omit many prepositions in thai

คุณพูดภาษาอะไร is understood but comes of as rude

 

คุณพูดภาษาอะไรอยู่ (ครับ) is polite

 

 

Really educational, many thanks(to all)

[ColeBOzbourne]

On 6/19/2021 at 11:09 AM, xkkpafi said:

What would be the position of a verb that someone/something is trying to do when using ลอง .. ดู.

Back to the OP's original question of the position of the verb, I found an example while reading this morning. The pattern in this example is: is: ลอง(verb)ดู. Somebody is going to try/risk something they've not done before, as in, "To try his luck" or "To risk his luck": ลองเสี่ยงโชคดู

 

[xkkpafi]

On 6/25/2021 at 9:33 AM, ColeBOzbourne said:

 ลอง(verb)ดู. 

 

Thanks for the confirmation. I suspected this was probably the structure since there seem to be many similar structures in Thai, verbs with two bits to them with stuff in between. But nice to get your comment, thanks.

[BKKBike09]

On 6/19/2021 at 11:09 AM, xkkpafi said:

What would be the position of a verb that someone/something is trying to do when using ลอง .. ดู. For example if you ask someone what language they are trying to speak, does the พูด come between ลอง .. ดู as in: คุณลองพูดดูภาษา อะไรครับ or would it come after: คุณลองดูพูดภาษา อะไร. Given the high probability that both are wrong, what would be the correct form of this question in Thai?

 

As noted by other posters, basic structure is ลอง verb/action ดู

 

In your example, if you're asking someone what language they're trying to speak, you wouldn't use ลองดู because that's more akin to "have a go". However if you were trying to encourage someone to try speaking X language to see if they are understood by a speaker of X, you could say something like ลองพูดดูครับ ถัาไม่ลองก็จะไม่รู้ว่าเราพูดถูกหรือไม่

 

Using a phrase like ไม่ลองไม่รู้ after suggesting ลองดู something is pretty common.