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Something seems off about the wording "try and..."

AppleFix88
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  • You typed only 4 words in your question and how are we supposed to know whether it is grammatically correct or not? This is your third question in this community and why didn't you take the tour and visit our help center? –  Jan 13 '16 at 06:04

1 Answers1

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Yes. "Try and" does mean "try to." Some say that "try and" is informal. Others say that there is some indication that in various scenarios it may even nuance a slightly different aspect, one of a greater expectation of success.

Here are some links that substantiate that "try and" is in use:

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/try-to-vs-try-and/

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/a-few-short-questions?page=all

http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/g43.html

Incidentally, if you are a fan of the British television drama Downton Abbey. It may interest you to know that, about eight minutes into this week's episode (Series 6, Episode 2), Lady Edith, on the phone to Mr. Skinner, her editor, said:

"Please, try and keep calm until I get there."

Lady Edith most definitely did not say, "Please, try to." My ears perked up and took notice because of this very issue of "try and." We are often led to believe it is something new. However, if the renowned historical fastidiousness of the show's writers for employing language of the times is any indication, one would presume that they were saying "try and" in England nearly a hundred years ago.

Benjamin Harman
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  • Hi, Benjamin, the question is blatantly off-topic. This is the third question and the last two were closed. The OP might be suspended. Please try not to answer this type of blatantly off-topic question. No sentence, no research, no context, nothing. –  Jan 13 '16 at 06:07
  • @Rathony : Off topic? Does that mean that someone should just change the category? The "tag"? This is a valid question that grammarians do get. I thought it might have been a duplicate, but after an hour on the board and not being marked as such, I figured it wasn't. – Benjamin Harman Jan 13 '16 at 06:12
  • The tag doesn't matter as long as the question has enough quality and we can edit the post. The question itself is not on-topic based on the guidelines of our help center, I mean we can never know what the OP is asking. –  Jan 13 '16 at 06:15
  • The question could be a duplicate of this question, Difference between “try to do” and “try and do”. –  Jan 13 '16 at 06:17
  • @Rathony : I inferred it to mean the question regarding the correctness of "try and." Logically, it should be "try to." However, this is an inference I drew. Should I edit the question in this regard? Or is the fact that my answer really only drives at the use of "try and" sufficient to leave it as is. – Benjamin Harman Jan 13 '16 at 06:32
  • It was just close-voted by sumelic as duplicate. The question is not salvageable. Especially when the OP has such a bad record, I don't think it is a good idea to edit it. It received 3 close-votes and it will be closed. –  Jan 13 '16 at 06:37
  • @Rathony : I'm not sure that it should be. The question of whether or not "try and" is correct, is proper, is a valid one. – Benjamin Harman Jan 13 '16 at 06:41
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. –  Jan 13 '16 at 06:43
  • Shall we have a short chat? Please click on the link. –  Jan 13 '16 at 06:44
  • Better referenced answer than at least one duplicate. 'Try and' sounds less stuttery than 'try to' especially when another couple of t's are around. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 06 '24 at 23:32