Tweet of the Week

For pet owners all around the world, the struggle to simply call in sick and stay cozy at home cuddling your beloved ball of fur is real. How can you resist those adorable googly eyes, their cry for hugs and games? You just can’t. But the reality is that you must feed said tiny companion and keep a roof over their furry ears. So out of the house you go.

Doan go out, stay wif me

When @mohu_movie, a Japanese twitter account dedicated to spreading adorable animal videos, shared this heart-melting Insta moment from Pooky the Munchkin it was cuteness overload.

出掛けようとしてるのを察して止められる…

可愛すぎ pic.twitter.com/h8C3knzH1g

— もふもふ動画館 (@mohu_Movie) January 12, 2019

出掛けようとしてるのを察して止められる…

可愛すぎ =

My cat senses when I’m about to go out and stops me from leaving…

It’s just too cute

When fate intervenes

The expression ようとしてる (〜ようとする) is great to add some twist and suspense when you are telling a story in Japanese. You’ll be able to describe what you attempted to do when another action or event occured.

The classic textbook example would be:

電車に乗ろうとしたらドアが閉まりました。= The train doors closed just when I was about to get on.

You’ll conjugate the verb into the volitional form, which indicates that you’re set out to do something, to which you’ll add とする.

• Verb + volitional form + to suru

ようとしてる (〜ようとする) can also be used to describe that a change is about to occur (start of a change, end of a change) as in: 

• 試合が始まろうとしている = the game is about to start
• もうすぐ花（が咲（）こうとしている = the flowers are about to bloom

You can spot this nuance with the frequent words that go with the verb to end (終（）わる) and to start (始まる) as well as time adverbs: これから (now, from now), 今（）にも and もうすぐ (soon).

Vocabulary

For more on learning Japanese

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