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This line comes from episode two of Konosuba

ねっ 私の手を引き剥がそうとしないでほしいです

From my understanding of 「そう」, its a verb form for something might happen. For example, 「あの木、倒れそうだよ」would mean "That tree is going to/looks like it's going to fall down." I'm pretty sure the sentence is saying something along the lines of "I wish you wouldn't try to rip my hand away" but I'm not totally sure.

What does 「そう」mean in this sentence? When I try to parse this sentence in that way though, it doesn't really make sense to me, but maybe it's correct?

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  • @aguijonazo If its in volitional form, would that mean that the sentence means "Lets not try to rip my hand away please!" or something like that?
    – SIREN
    Jun 22, 2022 at 12:23
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    See this and the questions linked from it: Volitional + と + Verb
    – aguijonazo
    Jun 23, 2022 at 6:59

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Your sentence doesn't have そう. 剥がそう is the volitional-form (aka う/よう-form) of 剥がす. 剥がそう might look like a そう-form because 剥がす happens to end with an S, but remember that そう meaning "looks like" attaches to a masu-stem. Compare:

  • 剥がしそう: (masu-stem + そう) looks like someone rips; someone is going to rip
  • 剥がすそう: (dictionary-form + そう) I heard someone rips; it is said that someone rips
  • 剥がそう: (volitional form) let's rip; try to rip

-う + とする is a common construction. See the link in the comment section.

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