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According to my Collins dictionary, both versuchen and probieren mean to try. Are they synonyms?

Em1
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Tom Phillips
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4 Answers4

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To expand on falkb's answer a bit: versuchen is usually followed by a complementary infinitive. It means "try (to do something)."

Ich versuche, Deutsch zu lernen aber ich finde es nicht einfach.

Probieren, on the other hand, is a transitive verb and takes a direct object in the accusative.

Hast du das Steak bei Outback Steakhouse probiert?

Probieren also commonly appears with the separable prefix aus- (to try out).

Nein. Ich habe es noch nicht ausprobiert.

kokirii
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9

versuchen is usually related to verbs (to attempt), probieren is more related to things you can see (to probe).

äüö
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For the record, in Yiddish the meanings are reversed: prubieren (synonym pruven) means to give something a try, as in "lomir (= lass uns) takkeh prubieren", let's give it a try; and versuchen means to try some food, as in "versuchen die suppe".

Marty Green
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Yes they are synonyms.

But there are a few exceptions, for example:

I wanna try these delicious hamburgers. -> Ich möchte gerne diese köstlichen Hamburger probieren.

Here is the tendency to probieren, versuchen doesn't sound very nice here.

Em1
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Postback
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  • Yes, there's a tendency to probieren. But versuchen is also in use for meals and drinks. – Em1 Jun 10 '13 at 06:48
  • Actually, there are a lot of "exceptions". All the following sentences are wrong, or at least very very odd: "Angeklagt wegen probierten Mordes", "er probierte zu fliehen", "sie hat probiert, den Fluss zu überqueren", "sie probierte sich als Model", "probiert sein etw. zu tun". All examples taken by just reading the Duden. – Em1 Jun 10 '13 at 06:52
  • For me, "versuchen" is not quite synonymous to "probieren" - I find "probieren" to have a connotation that a failure would not be a (big) problem, while "versuchen" doesn't. – Johannes Kloos Jun 10 '13 at 08:48
  • @Em1: Another regional/peer group/generation thing ... I would never ever use versuchen in context of food and I tell my students that it is wrong :) – Emanuel Jun 10 '13 at 13:09
  • @Emanuel Ich sag's auch nicht. Macht's aber nicht falsch. Aber es ist falsch, jemanden etwas als falsch zu lehren, wenn es zumindest eine signifikant große Gruppe gibt, die es sagt, so dass mindestens dem Duden der Eintrag der Bedeutung wert war. – Em1 Jun 10 '13 at 13:29
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    @Em1: touché. Das ist wohl war. – Emanuel Jun 10 '13 at 13:31