地道英语表达｜give something a shot, bu

give something a shot, but……

尝试，努力

We use this expression a lot and we can use it to describe any kind of experience. It could be a positive experience, and could be a negative experience. When we use the conjunction word ‘but’ at the end, it clearly communicates that the experience was negative, and it didn’t work out the way we had planed initially. 

Let’s illustrate this expression with some examples. 

EXAMPLE I

A: You went torock climbing攀岩last week, right? How do you like it?

B: Yeah, I give it shot but I don’t think it’s for me. I just don’t think I’d be able toget ove克服myfear of heights.恐高

A: That’s too bad.

B: Yeah. For now, I’m just gonnastick with继续做Yoga for exercise.

In this example, two friends are talking about rock climbing. One friend said that he gave rock climbing a shot, but it justwasn’t right for him. Here, he tried rock climbing, but he doesn’t like it. The experience didn’tgo the way he planned. I’m sure before he tried rock climbing and hewent in witha lot of expectations that this might be a good sport for him, but in the end, it didn’twork out.

EXAMPLE II

A: Now that Mark has beentransferred tothe European office, I’m hoping I cantake overhis assistant manager position.

B: That will bea great fit for you, I think.

A: Are you going toapply forit too?

B: I gave management a shot back in my last job, 

A: Oh, year, that’s right. 

B: But I was extremely stressed, and I just gotburn out, and since then I realized that management is justnot my thing.

In the example, two co-workers are talking about a potential new job opening. They both could apply for the assistant manager position, but one of the two has already given it a shot, but he realized that it wasn’t his thing. So, he’s not going to apply for that position.