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Word of the day 取る

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poelouchan_513950
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Joined: October 10th, 2016 12:40 pm

Word of the day 取る

Postby poelouchan_513950 » October 10th, 2016 12:48 pm

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
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arthur_rogers_513971
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Re: Word of the day 取る

Postby arthur_rogers_513971 » October 12th, 2016 4:28 am

What is the meaning of the sentence?

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community.japanese
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Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: Word of the day 取る

Postby community.japanese » October 20th, 2016 10:22 pm

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
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mmmason8967
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Re: Word of the day 取る

Postby mmmason8967 » October 24th, 2016 8:10 pm

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
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Joined: October 31st, 2016 2:57 pm

Re: Word of the day 取る

Postby thenaty22_514180 » October 31st, 2016 2:58 pm

mmmason8967 wrote: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 :D
Last edited by thenaty22_514180 on December 15th, 2016 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

motoko.innovative
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Joined: June 16th, 2014 11:28 pm

Re: Word of the day 取る

Postby motoko.innovative » November 7th, 2016 1:36 am

-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
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