Attempting

Attempting is the present participle and gerund form of the verb to attempt. It denotes the act of trying to achieve or accomplish something and often implies an ongoing effort that may or may not succeed. As a verb form, attempting appears in continuous tenses such as is attempting, was attempting, and will be attempting, and it can introduce participial phrases like “Attempting to solve the problem, she gathered more data.”

Grammatical usage centers on two common constructions. One is the base verb phrase: attempting to do something, as in “She is attempting to climb the hill.” The other is a subordinate participial clause: “The team, attempting to break the record, pushed hard.” The infinitive form to attempt is the more common complement after the verb: to attempt to do something. As a noun, the related form attempt is more standard; attempting itself is less often used as a standalone noun and tends to appear in participial phrases.

Nuance and register matter in choosing between attempting and related terms. Attempting emphasizes the effort and process, whereas success-oriented terms like succeed or achieve focus more on outcomes. In legal or formal writing, attempting is frequently encountered in phrases such as attempting murder or attempting to commit a crime, reflecting liability for an intention to commit a prohibited act.

Related terms include attempt (noun), attempt (verb), and synonyms such as try, endeavour, or strive. The word’s inflected forms include attempts, attempted, and attempting, which carry similar meaning but different syntactic roles.