I have a doubt about the use of ～てみる

Question

とっさにシートに触ってみたら、ぞっとする程冷たかった。

Does the structure in bold mean: "I have immediately tried to touch the seat"?

Not a duplicate but informative: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/28942/different-ways-to-try — virmaior, Jun 17 '17 at 11:38

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '17 at 12:12

I would not translate the structure in bold (触ってみたら) that way.

とっさにシートに触ってみたら、ぞっとする程冷たかった。

First off たら is indeed a conditional and it's key to understanding the construction as a whole.

The latter part means "it was cold enough to make me shiver."

The left hand part means "when i tried to touch the seat"

*シート = either seat or sheet *　触る (here conjugated as 触って) = to touch * ~てみる is a helping verb that means to "try"

I'd actually say とっさに = for a brief moment applies to the entire construction.

So then we get "when I tried to touch the sheet/seat for a moment it was cold enough to make me shiver"

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