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食べてみる means to eat and see, aka try eating, but can you do this:

食べないでみる meaning "I'm gonna try not eating"

例えば

今日お風呂を入らないで見たい。臭くなりますか？

Joel
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  • I don't have any proof, but my gut says that it doesn't quite work. I think ~たくがない is more along the lines of what you're trying to say. I don't have the know how out the experience to say it with 100% confidence tough. – ajsmart Jun 03 '17 at 03:49
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    ^ What's 「~たくがない」?? – Chocolate Jun 03 '17 at 09:14

2 Answers2

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今日お風呂に入らないでみたい is a valid sentence. Don't use kanji for 見たい since it's a subsidiary verb here. And it's お風呂に入る, not お風呂を入る.

Here are the three examples found on BCCWJ:

  • 4日ほどこちらからメールをしないでみてください。
  • 今回は（チェックを）入れないでみますね！
  • 今！ 絶対に！ 寝ないでみてください！

But the number of the examples was smaller than I expected, which may mean this construction is relatively uncommon.

naruto
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  • Thanks, that was what I needed. It probably is a rather uncommon construction, as even in english I would rarely say this sort of thing. Follow up question, do you never use the kanji on subsidiary verbs? 持っていく、持ってきて、帰ってきて、etc. – Joel Jun 04 '17 at 10:30
  • @Joel Style guides say not to use kanji for subsidiary verbs, and I generally follow the rule. But I see ～て行く and ～て来る relatively often, and I may be doing so every so often. Please see [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/34111/5010), too. – naruto Jun 06 '17 at 18:05
  • naruto, could you add info about the most common way to say "try not to do something"? – user1602 Feb 25 '19 at 06:22
  • @user1602 試しにお風呂に入らないでおく may be more common, although I have no statistical evidence. – naruto Feb 25 '19 at 06:27
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食べてみる means to eat and see

In my experience, it used in the context of trying something to see if you like it. Someone might pass you something and say 食べてみて...

The negative form you mentioned, 食べないでみる, is strange in this context. Like saying "Don't try this and tell me what you think". However, in the context of some other purpose is OK as in "I think I'll not eat today to see if helps my stomachache"

Justin J.
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