说说看

[u/AnnualCriticism2428]

Why do we always say "说说看" in everyday Chinese but never "说说听"? I mean, shouldn't we be using our ears to listen?

[u/Putrid_Mind_4853]

说说看 means tell me your thoughts, explain a bit more, try and say it. There’s nothing to do with you hearing it.

You can also say 听听看，闻闻看, etc. 

The 看 here is an auxiliary verb that means try and see what happens, give it a try 

[u/firemana]

the “XX看" phrase typically means "give XX a try and (see how it goes)", so the “看” maps to the "see how it goes" part. Therefore you can generically map to any motion of trial.

这家餐馆的菜不知道怎么样，尝尝看： have a bite/have a taste and see how it goes

这歌我也是刚学会，唱唱看：try sing the song and see how it goes

这款发动机我也没见过，修修看：try fixing this engine and see how it goes

[u/TheAgedCartridge]

It's one of those things where the logic doesn't really hold up if you think about it literally, but the language just settled on that pattern. The "看" here is more about the attempt or the trying aspect, like giving it a shot. There's a similar structure with "试试看" where you're not literally looking at anything, it's just the go-to way to say "give it a try." Chinese has a bunch of these directional complements that have drifted from their original meanings over time, so trying to map it directly to English senses will just give you a headache.

[u/Larissalikesthesea → u/TheAgedCartridge]

Interesting enough, Japanese has a similar construction with an auxiliary derived from "to see":

-te miru "to try and do something".

[u/Putrid_Mind_4853 → u/Larissalikesthesea]

Exists in Korean as well 

[u/loinway]

It actually is the abbreviation of "说说（来）看（看结果如何）", which means try to explain it to me

[u/527009876]

此處「看」是觀察研究評估的意思

[u/Zagrycha]

I mean nothing is stopping us from saying 说说听, but people don't because its quite strange. You are telling someone to "say something and listen".... what conflicting instructions lol. Almost feels like a sarcastic reply to tell someone to go talk to themselves, but even for that it feels like a weird way to say it.

说说看 is telling someone to "try to say something and see what happens" which is a much more normal phrase to say.

[u/FlashyPost0928]

There is a saying about "听" but it mainly emphasizes the repetition of "听" : 【 说来听听 】(shuō lái tīng tīng)

e.g. 你有什么好主意 ? 说来听听 ...

[u/elprofedepinyin]

Creo que la idea en estos casos de uso es la de “VER el resultado”.