# Colloquial ways of saying to try, give it a try



## viezis

What are the idiomatic, slang ways of saying "have a crack at/give it a go/a try/a whirl"? take a stab at something? try one's hand at? have a go at?

Perhaps also ways of saying to try something (attempt something)  or even ways of saying to engage in a "trial and error" sort of way with something?


I know of  the phrases:
Я дал бы ему попытку. 


and the somewhat related что ж, попытка не пытка


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## Rosett

It must be some context here in order get a more or less appropriate translation. If you want it in a slang way, it could depend on the exact nature of its underlying action. For example, if you want your friend crank your wreck, or untwist a tight screw-threaded plug of some beer container, in Russian you want to say something like: «(Давай,) крутани́!»
Or, if someone has to press firmly against some tough stuff, you can tell him: «Давани́ (как следует)!»
If you want to flee from a police pursuit, tell the driver: «Газани́!» in an attempt to accelerate faster.


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## viezis

I mean to try in the sense of perform an action while striving for it to succeed/reach some end one has in mind

A sentence "Let me take a stab at it, maybe I can do it"; or perhaps "I think I'm up for it *then procees to try*"


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## Maroseika

viezis said:


> A sentence "Let me take a stab at it, maybe I can do it"; or perhaps "I think I'm up for it *then procees to try*"


You can use "попробовать": 
Дай мне попробовать (дай я попробую), вдруг получится.


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## Awwal12

viezis said:


> I know of  the phrases:
> Я дал бы ему попытку.


Just if you actually mean ~"I would allow him to have a try".
It's difficult to give an answer outside of some particular context, but using "попробовать" is usually an adequate option.


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> You can use "попробовать":
> Дай мне попробовать (дай я попробую), вдруг получится.


What is colloquial in «попробовать»?


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## Rosett

viezis said:


> I mean to try in the sense of perform an action while striving for it to succeed/reach some end one has in mind
> 
> A sentence "Let me take a stab at it, maybe I can do it"; or perhaps "I think I'm up for it *then procees to try*"


Let’s say, your car is stuck firmly in a snow bank and you’re asking someone try to push you away from the ice patch: «Толкани́, друг!», or “Give it a try, bro!”


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## viezis

Awwal12 said:


> Just if you actually mean ~"I would allow him to have a try".
> It's difficult to give an answer outside of some particular context, but using "попробовать" is usually an adequate option.



Yes my mistake!!


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## viezis

Rosett said:


> Let’s say, your car is stuck firmly in a snow bank and you’re asking someone try to push you away from the ice patch: «Толкани́, друг!», or “Give it a try, bro!”



From which infinitives are "толкани" "давани" "крутани", and "газани" formed?


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## Rosett

viezis said:


> From which infinitives are "толкани" "давани" "крутани", and "газани" formed?


«Толкануть», «давануть», «крутануть», «газануть», respectively.


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## Maranello_rosso

А ну-ка, попробуй теперь.
Попробуй ты!
Твоя очередь!
Так, давай, пробуй!


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## DialectLearner

viezis said:


> A sentence "Let me take a stab at it, maybe I can do it"; or perhaps "I think I'm up for it *then procees to try*"


"Дай-ка я! Может у меня выйдет." 
When talking to friends or family I would say something like:
- Дай-ка! ("Give [it to me to try]!")
- Дай-ка я! ("Let me [try]!")
- Дай-ка мне! ("Give me [it]!")
- Дай сюда! ("Pass it over here!" Meaning "Give it to me". This can be a bit or even very aggressive. Depends on how you say it though. A smile and calm voice will add a friendly vibe to it.)
- Дай-ка сюда! ("Pass it over here!" Generally speaking, this command is less aggressive than the previous one or even friendly but again it depends on how you say it, i.e. the degree of aggressiveness varies depending on the tone of your voice, what you do while saying that, etc...).
"-ка" is used to make a request or a command sound softer and less formal.
You can also embellish the above with "а ну", e.g. "А ну, дай-ка!" ("Come on, give [it to me]!").
When talking to elders I would replace "дай" with "дайте", that is if I am on friendly terms with them, otherwise I'd go for something formal like "Можно я попробую?"


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## Maranello_rosso

DialectLearner said:


> "Дай-ка я! Может у меня выйдет."
> When talking to friends or family I would say something like:
> - Дай-ка! ("Give [it to me to try]!")
> - Дай-ка я! ("Let me [try]!")
> - Дай-ка мне! ("Give me [it]!")
> - Дай сюда! ("Pass it over here!" Meaning "Give it to me". This can be a bit or even very aggressive. Depends on how you say it though. A smile and calm voice will add a friendly vibe to it.)
> - Дай-ка сюда! ("Pass it over here!" Generally speaking, this command is less aggressive than the previous one or even friendly but again it depends on how you say it, i.e. the degree of aggressiveness varies depending on the tone of your voice, what you do while saying that, etc...).
> "-ка" is used to make a request or a command sound softer and less formal.
> You can also embellish the above with "а ну", e.g. "А ну, дай-ка!" ("Come on, give [it to me]!").
> When talking to elders I would replace "дай" with "дайте", that is if I am on friendly terms with them, otherwise I'd go for something formal like "Можно я попробую?"


Отличный ответ!


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## GarbageCollector

What I'm going to suggest is not idiomatic but if you want to sound really contemporary you can say _"дай *прОбну*" (the "*O*" vowel is stressed)_ instead of _"дай *попробую*"_ although most people will argue that it's not grammatically correct and there isn't such a word. But some of us (esp. people under 30) definitely use this word in casual talk.


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## Awwal12

GarbageCollector said:


> although most people will argue that it's not grammatically correct and there isn't such a word


No, it's worse. It's simply absent in actual speech of most speakers, regardless of how literate it may be.





GarbageCollector said:


> But some of us (esp. people under 30) definitely use this word in casual talk.


You just forgot to add "in my personal circle".


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## GarbageCollector

Awwal12 said:


> It's simply absent in actual speech of most speakers.



Of course, but 90% of people will probably understand what that means as long as you show any kind of confidence when saying that


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## Awwal12

GarbageCollector said:


> Of course, but 90% of people will probably understand what that means


90% will understand a lot of things, even severely distorted and ungrammatical. Which doesn't mean that a learner should have his mind stuffed with all of it. Even if we limit ourselves with utterances produced by native speakers, common colloquialisms are one thing, while occasionalisms or narrow regiolectims are something different.


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## Rosett

DialectLearner said:


> "Дай-ка я! Может у меня выйдет."
> When talking to friends or family I would say something like:
> - Дай-ка! ("Give [it to me to try]!")
> - Дай-ка я! ("Let me [try]!")
> - Дай-ка мне! ("Give me [it]!")
> - Дай сюда! ("Pass it over here!" Meaning "Give it to me". This can be a bit or even very aggressive. Depends on how you say it though. A smile and calm voice will add a friendly vibe to it.)
> - Дай-ка сюда! ("Pass it over here!" Generally speaking, this command is less aggressive than the previous one or even friendly but again it depends on how you say it, i.e. the degree of aggressiveness varies depending on the tone of your voice, what you do while saying that, etc...).
> "-ка" is used to make a request or a command sound softer and less formal.
> You can also embellish the above with "а ну", e.g. "А ну, дай-ка!" ("Come on, give [it to me]!").
> When talking to elders I would replace "дай" with "дайте", that is if I am on friendly terms with them, otherwise I'd go for something formal like "Можно я попробую?"


«Дай(-ка)» means “let” colloquially, not “try.”


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## DialectLearner

Maranello_rosso said:


> Отличный ответ!


Спасибо 



Rosett said:


> «Дай(-ка)» means “let” colloquially, not “try.”


Well, that depends on when you say it. A word can have several meanings to it.  As far as I know, "crack", "whirl' and "go", mentioned in viezis' initial post, can be interpreted differently in both colloquial and formal English, but within those very phrases they mean "a try".

As for "дай-ка":
*YES*, "*Дай-ка* я тебе кое-что расскажу." means "*Let* me tell you something."

*BUT* if, for instance, I happen to watch my friend try to change some settings in his smartphone and fail repeatedly, I would hold out my hand, make the give-it-to-me gesture with my fingers and say "Дай-ка." or "Дай-ка я." or "Дай-ка мне." or "Дай сюда." or "Дай-ка сюда.", which would definitely be understood as "Let me have a go at it (i.e. "Let me try to change the settings, maybe I will be able to make it.")" and, in my humble opinion, would sound absolutely natural


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## Rosett

DialectLearner said:


> Спасибо
> 
> 
> Well, that depends on when you say it. A word can have several meanings to it.  As far as I know, "crack", "whirl' and "go", mentioned in viezis' initial post, can be interpreted differently in both colloquial and formal English, but within those very phrases they mean "a try".
> 
> As for "дай-ка":
> *YES*, "*Дай-ка* я тебе кое-что расскажу." means "*Let* me tell you something."
> 
> *BUT* if, for instance, I happen to watch my friend try to change some settings in his smartphone and fail repeatedly, I would hold out my hand, make the give-it-to-me gesture with my fingers and say "Дай-ка." or "Дай-ка я." or "Дай-ка мне." or "Дай сюда." or "Дай-ка сюда.", which would definitely be understood as "Let me have a go at it (i.e. "Let me try to change the settings, maybe I will be able to make it.")" and, in my humble opinion, would sound absolutely natural


”Try” may be confounded with «Дай» only metonymically, i.e., by shifting its sense, as if in: «Дай и мне (попробовать)!».


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## DialectLearner

1)


Rosett said:


> ”Try” may be confounded with «Дай» only metonymically, i.e., by shifting its sense, as if in: «Дай и мне (попробовать)!».


I would say it's substituting rather than confounding, but, whatever it be, I haven't noticed anything like "give me all the options except for the metonymically substitutable  ones" in viezis' posts  And therefore, addressing post No. 3 in the thread,


viezis said:


> "Let me take a stab at it, maybe I can do it"; or perhaps "I think I'm up for it *then procees to try*"


I offered some options (or to be more precise one option and some variations) which, in my opinion, _do_ *convey the meaning and sound 100% natural*  And this is what, from my perspective, good translation is all about 

P.S. Correct me if I'm wrong but, as I already said, the meanings of "whirl", "crack", "stab" and "go" within the above phrases have been shifted too, haven't they? 

2)
As for the initial post (I almost forgot that there is a slight difference between post No. 1 and post No. 3),


viezis said:


> What are the idiomatic, slang ways of saying "have a crack at/give it a go/a try/a whirl"? take a stab at something? try one's hand at? have a go at?


if what is meant here is a command, then I would recommend the following (none of them can be literally translated as "try it", actually there is *much* more of "Come on!" than "Try it!" in them, but they are colloquial and they do work in certain scenarios *only*):
- Давай! (Come on! [i.e. Try it!])
- Давай ты! (Leterally "Let us have it that you do/try it.")
- Вперёд! (a military order that is occasionally used in our daily speech as "Come on!", "Move on!" or "Have a go at it!")
- Ну! (in a very narrow context. Like if you are waiting for somebody to do (or in your case *try*) something but he or she is afraid of doing it or cannot make up his or her mind for some time)
- Ну же! (same as the previous one but when you already have or starting to run out of patience)
- Держи! (For example when you have to write a business letter and you see that your colleague or subordinate has got some better ideas, you can pass your laptop on to him or her and assertively (the tone of voice matters here) say "Держи." It is more "Here you are" but in this case will be construed as "try it".)
- На! (same as "Держи!")

P.S. Just like all of my posts this one is but my personal take on the issue.


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## veklingua

give it a try/go/whirl ; have a go/crack at  (general advice or encouragement)
No direct equivalents, however, colloquialism is frequently achieved by adding extra clauses, such as:
_(Ни о чем) не волнуйся/думай/переживай/беспокойся; Не сомневайся; Не беспокойся о последствиях; не волнуйся получится или нет!
Попробуй, а вдруг у тебя пойдет/получится!
Что тебе терять!
_
Also, with certain repeatable verbs, pre-pending suffix «по-» indicates tentative action:
Give yoga a try (it might help you) - _Позанимайся йогой (тебе может помочь)._
Have a go at music writing (you have a knack for it) - _Попиши музыку (у тебя явные способности)._

try one's hand at
_Попробовать свои силы в чем-то; Испытать себя в чем-то_
You should try your hand at acting – (_Обязательно) попробуй себя в театре._

take a stab at something (attempt an endeavor while setting modest expectations initially)
_Сделать пробную попытку; сделать/предложить пробный вариант
Начать с малого_
Take a stab at the report and I’ll edit it later – _Сделай набросок, а я потом откорректирую._
I’d like to take a stab at solving the problem… - _Как первый вариант решения проблемы, я предлагаю…_
Just take an initial stab at it for now, you can continue later – _Пока начни с малого, продолжишь потом._


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