How do you translate "I am trying not to speak English"?

[Lillukka]

After Hank's remembrances in relation to my nik, I couldn't help posting a grammatical question.

After a long struggle with the courses at the university, I have finally started to use my Finnish. Er, almost every day. Could you please help me learn how to make sentences similar to "I am trying not to speak English today"? My FFF textbooks don't seem to have a chapter on the negative form of the infinitive.

Kiitos.

[kalmisto]

After Hank's remembrances in relation to my nik, I couldn't help posting a grammatical question.

After a long struggle with the courses at the university, I have finally started to use my Finnish. Er, almost every day. Could you please help me learn how to make sentences similar to "I am trying not to speak English today"? My FFF textbooks don't seem to have a chapter on the negative form of the infinitive.

Kiitos.

I would say: Yritän olla puhumatta englantia tänään.

yrittää = to try

"yrittää" is conjugated like this :

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/go.asp? ... eField.y=2

Yritän olla nauramatta = I am trying not to laugh. ( nauraa = to laugh )

Yritän olla itkemättä = I am trying not to cry. ( itkeä = to cry )

[Lillukka]

Thanks! But is it actually the way Finns would say this phrase?

[Pecchio]

Thanks! But is it actually the way Finns would say this phrase?

Yes it is. In the - haha - Standard Finnish there probably isn't any other way to say it, but I cannot speak for the lovely young children in the age bracket of 10 to 25 years, who just may have conjured up a dozen dialectal, slang, or other cool ways of saying it.

Or: Koetan olla nauramatta. This is the second alternative.

Koetan/koitan olla ...matta. Yritän olla uimatta etc.

But to answer the inferred question: these are not biblical forms but everyday language. "Koetan" is more informal than "yritän", however.

[Lillukka]

Ah, kiitos paljon! I don't really worry about the language of the 10-25 yr olds right now, I am still having fun with the "standard" spoken Finnish.

So, from tomorrow on mä koetan olla puhumatta englantia..

[Lahja]

As a Finn, I would say " Yritän/Koitan puhua tänään suomea koko päivän". (Yes, "koitan" is dialect.) I assume your goal is to speak Finnish, not to avoid English (and speak Spanish, French etc.) This structure is simpler and thus more used.