〜ようとしない・～ようと思わない: The "Won't Even Try" Lesson

Introduction

"Didn't we just have a 〜ようとする lesson?!", you ask.

Yes! But this is a 〜ようとしない lesson!

(I promise this one will be shorter.)

〜ようとしない: For the motivationally-challenged among us

構成こうせい

• 

  Volitional form verbとしない
  Example:
  → マイクは全然ぜんぜん理解りかいしようとしていない。
  "Mike is making zero effort to understand.”

As opposed to 〜ようとする, the main use of the 〜ようとしない pattern is to express that "someone is making no effort to do X". Usually, this "someone" is someone other than the speaker, although there are a couple of small (I promise!) exceptions.

Structure

〜ようとしない is simply a combination of a volitional form verb, the と particle, and the negative casual (or polite) form of the verb する.