Vocab: proovima - to try
to try; to attempt; to test; to try something (new) like food, drink, or smoking to see if you like it; to do something for the first time out of curiosity; to find out someone's or something's value through challenges or tests; to try to do something or achieve a goal or result
Building blocks
proovi- → comes from the noun proov (test, trial)
-ma → infinitive ending
So, the literal meaning of proovima is "to do a test" or "to do an attempt", which naturally translates as "to try" or "to test" in English.
How to use it
What to remember
What you try is in the Partitive Case (third base form)
Proovisin eile uut joogaasendit
Literally: “I tried yesterday new yoga-pose”
Idiomatically: “I tried a new yoga pose yesterday”
Proovisin - 1st Person Singular, Past Tense: "I tried"
eile - Adverb - Indeclinable: "yesterday"
uut - Adjective - Partitive Singular: "new"
joogaasendit - Noun - Partitive Singular: "yoga pose"The thing you're trying is in the Partitive case, and the action is expressed with the da-infinitive form
Ma proovin eesti keelt õppida
Literally: “I try Estonian language to learn”
Idiomatically: “I try to learn Estonian”
Ma - Pronoun - Nominative Singular: "I"
proovin - Verb - 1st Person Singular, Present Tense: "try"
eesti - Attribute in genitive - Indeclinable: "Estonian"
keelt - Noun - Partitive Singular: "language"
õppida - Verb - da-Infinitive: "to learn"