I hate to be a grammar snob, but this colloquial construction of “try and” irks me:
I will try and do it.
The team will try and get a touchdown on this next play.
We will try and attend the party.
It’s bad grammar.
According to alt-usage-english.org: “Some commentators maintain that there is no semantic difference whatever between try and and try to; certainly in many contexts they are interchangeable: “I will try to/and attend the party tonight.”
They are not interchangeable. And is a coordinating conjunction. It has the same meaning as the word plus. You would never say “I will try plus do it,” would you?
Another reason try and and try to are not interchangeable:
The verb try has the same meaning as the verb attempt. You would not say:
I will attempt and do it.
The team will attempt and get a touchdown on this next play.
We will attempt and attend the party.
No one would understand you. So, let’s try to get this right…
Or just be like Yoda and you can’t go wrong: Do or do not. There is no try. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
I know, Lisa, but I have to listen to everyone else and resist correcting them! lol! I saw a book at our library’s used book sale titled “Try and Make Me,” and I have to admit, “Try to Make Me” would sound wrong. But maybe that was the point– it depends on the story’s narrator. After all, Elmore Leonard was big on writing characters who spoke with bad grammar.
I’m afraid it’s a losing battle. Though I hate “try and” when “try to” is what is meant, many authorities begrudgingly accept it for informal writing. But I hate, hate, hate it. And I will not try to accept it.
I’m with you Laura. I cringe every time I hear it. The worst part is knowing I probably slip up myself! Argh!
Hi Linda
Sorry, but I wouldn’t go along with what you say. They are actually interchangeable. “Try and …” and “try to …” mean the same thing, i.e. “endeavour”, though the syntax is different. In, for example, “We always try to do our best”, “to do our best” is a straightforward infinitival complement of “try”. In the idiomatic and slightly less formal “We always try and do our best”, “and” has been bleached of its normal coordinator meaning and it does not entail that we do our best, as it would in the coordinative “We always try and we do our best”.
Thanks for your input! I don’t think and/to is interchangeable in all instances however.
For example, I can’t see how this works: “I try and accept this as interchangeable.” It grates my ears. The sentence does not work. It has to be “I try to accept this,” wouldn’t you agree?