How would you go about saying things like 'I want to try X' or 'I want to make someone do X' or 'I want to be able to do X'? I'm wondering how and if the -tai verb ending would combine with passive, potential and other verb conjugations.

Ok, since I am usually the rude bastard on here, I will try to help out.
if you want to try to eat something you say　食べて＊＊みたい＊＊
if you want to read 読んで＊＊みたい＊＊
MITAI YO YO, anyways, just google てみる　and japanese and you will get better help

Minako Okamoto covered "try" in her blog, Nihongo Day by Day Perapera Version, last February:

てみる、ようにする、ようとする

http://nihongodaybyday.blogspot.com/2010...-post.html

This might be helpful.

やってみろ！ (Sounds a bit negative)
Not really saying I want to try, more like saying why don't you try.

I too am interested in how this works. By just combining the normal pattern of てみる, you can come up with something, but theres always the question of whether or not the sentence structure is actually used.

'I want to try TO DO X' - [verb stem]+てみたい (note that you cant just say "try X", it has to be "try to do X")
'I want to TRY make someone do X' - [passive form stem]+てみたい
'I want to TRY to be able to do X'　- [potential form stem]+てみたい

It seems like the first two of these are used, searching around i found things like
犬に芸を覚えさせてみたい

But i couldnt find any decisive evidence for 出来てみたい. I think maybe "出来ることが欲しい"
is more of a normal thing to say.
何か自分で対処出来ることが欲しいと思う。


If you want to get rid of the TRY, you would have to use the てほしい construction or something else if you want a more formal version.

できてみたい would normally not be used because てみる (and たい forms) is used only with "operational" verbs (i.e. ones that involve control or volition).

Ydde2009 Wrote:How would you go about saying things like 'I want to try X' or 'I want to make someone do X' or 'I want to be able to do X'?

A bunch of examples (from light novels):

[Someone] wants to try ~
「僕も飲んでみたい。」
「わたしは、恋というのをしてみたい。」

[Someone] wants to make [someone] do ~
「こいつは一体、俺に何を言わせたいんだ？」
「自分の力だけで、笑わせてみたい。」

[Someone] wants to be able to ~
「泳げるようになりたい。」
「すらすらと台詞を言えるようになりたい。」

Ydde2009 Wrote:I'm wondering how and if the -tai verb ending would combine with passive, potential and other verb conjugations.

Causative is already covered. Here's passive and alternative:

Passive:
「あたしに殴られたいのか。」
「正直に言って、あまり人に見られたいものではないのだ。」

Alternative (not really, but close enough):
「ただ、ふたりで歩いたり、お話したりしたいと…」

たい can't combine with potential, I think; not directly.