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[poelouchan_513950]

Hi,

One of the model sentences was - じょせいがサラダのふくろをとろうとしている。

the structure とろうとしている has thrown me.

Why not just とっている

Thanks
ポール

[arthur_rogers_513971]

What is the meaning of the sentence?

[community.japanese]

san,
Konnichiwa.
とろう is the volitional from of とる so it indicates the subject’s will.
On the other hand とっているshows the fact only.

san,
konnichiwa.
The sentence means ‘a lady wants to take a bad of salad and is trying it.’

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[mmmason8967]

As I understand it, the volitional + としている is equivalent to the English "is trying to..." or "is just about to...". In the case of the sample sentence 「じょせいがサラダのふくろをとろうとしている。」 I think the translation would be "The woman is just about to take a bag of salad".

マイケル

[thenaty22_514180]

As I understand it, the volitional + としている is equivalent to the English "is trying to..." or "is just about to...". In the case of the sample sentence 「じょせいがサラダのふくろをとろうとしている。」 I think the translation would be "The woman is just about to take a bag of salad".

マイケル

thank you a lot!!

... so that's woman is not going to need any antibiotics because she eats well

[motoko.innovative]

-san, and -san konnichiwa,

Firstly, マイケルさん (or mmmason8967-san) Thank you for your help!
As マイケルｰsan explained, とろうとしている means "to be about to take" so the lady hasn't reached the bag of the salad.

If the sentence were with とっている, the lady already grabbed the bag of salad and she is putting it into her basket.
An easier image would be that the lady is at a buffet-style cafeteria, and serving some salad to her plate.
Then you can say じょせいがサラダをとっている。(The lady is taking/serving some salad.)

Hope this helps,
Motoko
Team JapanesePod101.com