5 tries.

If at first you don’t succeed ….……… try try try again. Maybe you’ve heard this proverb before, which recommends tenacity and perseverance to achieve what you want.

An interesting link into mailing, I thought. How often are we asked to do something and estimate a due date to complete the task?  How’s about some ‘trying’ mail phrases to add to your toolkit?

“I’ll attempt / do my utmost / to complete the task by Friday.” (formal)

“I’ll endeavour* (endeavor US) to complete the task by Friday.” (formal)

“I’ll try / do (very) best to finish / get the task done (colloquial) by Friday”.

Notice the use of the ‘will’ form, which is often used to express a ‘promise’. German speakers often make the mistake of leaving it out “I try to do it until Friday”.

That leads me to a second common mistake, writing ‘until’ instead of ‘by’, which is used to express a deadline – maybe it’ll arrive earlier (dream on) but I’ll bust a gut to meet the deadline.

Watch out what you promise!!!

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, again (Wirf die Flinte nicht gleich ins Korn), proverb (Sprichwort), tenacity (Zähigkeit), perseverance (Durchhaltevermögen), due date (Hier: Termin), to estimate (einschätzen), to attempt (versuchen), to do my utmost (sein Möglichstes tun), to bust a gut (sich den Arsch aufreißen)

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