Cohortative ましょう with and without the auxiliary construction ～てみる

Question

In "何かしてみましょう。" meaning "Let's try/do something.", what is the literal translation of "してみましょう"? I've got "して" means "doing" and "みましょう" means "let's watch or let's?".

How is "してみましょう" different from using "しましょう"? Would using "してましょう" be grammatically correct and mean the same thing?

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Related: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3593/how-to-say-try-to-have-to — , Apr 25 '12 at 03:29

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 10 '17 at 16:46

The form 〜てみます（みる） means "to do something and see how it turns out/how it goes". So 〜てみましょう means "let's do it and see how it goes", whereas 〜ましょう just means "let's do it".

何かしてみましょう　→　Let's do something and see what happens/how it turns out
何かしましょう　→　Let's do something

In this case, there's not a huge difference in the meaning (assuming this is said in a familiar context). Using 〜てみましょう simply adds a nuance of uncertainty regarding how it will be.

Cohortative ましょう with and without the auxiliary construction ～てみる

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