Try as ‘someone’ might – English Grammar Profiler

The construction ‘try as * might,’ means that someone is trying very hard, but they still cannot do it.

In the English Grammar Profile, point 219 in the category of MODALITY is defined:

‘try as I might’ for emphasis at the beginning of a sentence.

An iWeb search for . Try as * _VM

1 . TRY AS I MIGHT 408 2 . TRY AS WE MIGHT 158 3 . TRY AS THEY MIGHT 154 4 . TRY AS YOU MIGHT 150 5 . TRY AS HE MIGHT 140 6 . TRY AS I MAY 55 7 . TRY AS SHE MIGHT 42 8 . TRY AS YOU MAY 31 9 . TRY AS WE MAY 28 10 . TRY AS THEY MAY 27 11 . TRY AS IT MIGHT 19 12 . TRY AS HE MAY 13

13 . TRY AS HE WOULD 11

Here are the best real-world examples that do not contain the limiting ‘I’ or ‘beginning of a sentence’.  We still believe they all point to C2 proficiency.  Especially, if you believe rarer examples of a stucture tend to indicate higher proficiency.