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It doesn't seem to me to be possible to use the adverb "strongly" in connection with the verb "try" but I can't figure out why not. It feels as it it ought to be possible but never sounds right. Is this a correct observation and if so is there a clear linguistic reason for this? The obvious answer is to use the adverb "hard", but why not "strongly"?

Kandor
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    "Strongly" would not be ungrammatical, but it would be rare and unnatural: link – BillJ Jan 17 '21 at 10:03
  • So statistically speaking my observation is correct, but is there a reason for this enormous statistical difference if both are correct? – Kandor Jan 17 '21 at 11:07
  • Expressions can be unnatural while being grammatically correct. It's just the way the language has evolved. – BillJ Jan 17 '21 at 12:04
  • So you feel that it is simply a case of the expression not being used much and therefore sounding strange when it is used. I agree with that. I'm just wondering if there is logical/linguistic reason why people don't use it or if it is purely a phonic question. – Kandor Jan 17 '21 at 12:13
  • Acceptability and grammaticality are only loosely synonymous. Just as strings that are free associations may develop into weak then strong collocations, they may trend in the opposite direction and sound unnatural. And as Orwell's Big Brother of a rule (his 'Sixth Law') commands, 'avoid anything sounding distinctly unnatural'. A strong/powerful warrior, but strong tea and a powerful computer. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 17 '21 at 12:52
  • So you are confirming that it could merely be a phonic question? – Kandor Jan 17 '21 at 12:58
  • That's what we mean by "unnatural-sounding". – BillJ Jan 17 '21 at 13:24
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    Can we see an example of a logical sentence that uses try strongly? Commenters could say they just don't go together, or they could ask "How would someone try in a strong way?" For example, I could say "I tried weakly (or meekly)", and strongly is one synonym, but that does not mean it fits logically as a substitute there. – Yosef Baskin Jan 17 '21 at 15:13
  • In theory, you can use any verb with any adverb and be grammatical. But that doesn't mean it will be correct. See the second entry at https://www.thefreedictionary.com/strongly. Or: Why? Because. – Tinfoil Hat Jan 17 '21 at 16:37
  • What I'm really looking for is whether there is a reason that goes beyond the simple fact that it doesn't sound right. – Kandor Jan 17 '21 at 23:03
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    @Kandor How do you “attempt strongly”? What does that even *mean?* You can’t seem strongly or sleep strongly or read strongly or know strongly or listen strongly or help strongly or save strongly or fix strongly or become strongly or get strongly or watch strongly or any number of other verbs where using strongly would be senseless, so why would you think it wouldn't be equally senseless with try? Never forget that *colorless green ideas sleep furiously.* – tchrist Jan 18 '21 at 03:21
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    @tchrist - Well, if you try to do something with all your strength, could that not be "trying strongly"? I know I wouldn't actually say it myself but I can't find a logical or semantic reason why not. I have to draw the conclusion that it is merely a question of usage. – Kandor Jan 18 '21 at 07:07
  • To repeat: it breaks Orwell's Sixth (and strongest) Law. Sorry, supreme. 'Merely a question of usage' describes the whole of English; those who ascribe grammaticality sole importance get very weird looks. English isn't well-behaved, and usage trumps grammaticality where they are both in play (hence the existence of the extra-grammatical subset of idioms). And of course poetry and pop lyrics bow to neither. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 17 '21 at 12:24
  • Try mightily outranks try strongly (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=try+strongly%2Ctry+mightily), which may be pointing in the direction you want. Why? Why don't people turn up to Andy Dick comedy shows? Some things take off and others don't. – jimm101 Nov 09 '22 at 15:16
  • What we say is: to try one's utmost to do something. – Lambie Nov 09 '22 at 16:27

4 Answers4

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The following comments by tchrist are worth reposting as an answer, so that they can be voted on.

How do you “attempt strongly”? What does that even mean? You can’t seem strongly or sleep strongly or read strongly or know strongly or listen strongly or help strongly or save strongly or fix strongly or become strongly or get strongly or watch strongly or any number of other verbs where using strongly would be senseless, so why would you think it wouldn't be equally senseless with try?

There are lots of verbs that you can’t do "strongly"; think for example of: attempt strongly, help strongly, save strongly, read strongly, watch strongly, sleep strongly, fix strongly, become strongly. Those just don't make any sense.

This argument, that using strongly with try would be nonsensical, is very different from the argument made by other contributors to this page that it would be merely unidiomatic. Nobody has yet offered on this page a realistic example of a situation in which one would want to use try strongly to accurately describe something, and would be precluded from it only by its being unidiomatic.

jsw29
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I don't think there is anything wrong with "try strongly" per se. It is just not the idiom that we use. In English, when I was a kid, we used to say "I did such and such by accident", most young people now say "I did such and such on accident". It is just a change in the idiom of the language.

If you said "try strongly" people would certainly understand what you meant, but it wouldn't seem quite right. I am reminded of a question someone else asked a while ago which I answered:

What is wrong in "Please don't pluck the flowers" and other phrases used in the Indian subcontinent?

How does a learner learn what is right and wrong? Unfortunately, I think the only way is by reading, listening and speaking a lot of English with native speakers.

Fraser Orr
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    There are lots of verbs that you can’t do "strongly"; think for example of: attempt strongly, help strongly, save strongly, read strongly, watch strongly, sleep strongly, fix strongly, become strongly. Those just don't make any sense. They all become mere variations on the theme of Chomsky’s famously grammatical nonsense of Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. :) – tchrist Jan 18 '21 at 03:24
  • So what it boils down to, as I had half imagined, is that the adverb "strongly" has inherent limits in its common use, but there is no logical or semantic reason for this. – Kandor Jan 18 '21 at 07:03
  • @tchrist Etically, 'try strongly' is in a different class from 'Colorless puce notions slumber vehemently'. Nobody has asked here why the latter can't be used. 'Strongly' has overlap with 'hard' in distribution ('push/blow hard/strongly') ('push ...' being common in metaphorical usages) as well as having considerable semantic overlap. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 17 '21 at 11:14
  • A number of tchrist's impossible phrases are found on Google Books, e.g. "...fix strongly upon distant advantage", "they should attempt strongly to understand one another's problems" – Stuart F Mar 14 '22 at 15:12
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    Never heard the "on accident" expression - is that a regional thing? – Toby Speight Mar 14 '22 at 16:27
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Strong makes me think of physical strength. "A lot of effort" is typically conveyed by "hard". As you "work hard", so you can "try hard".

alkemyst
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  • Strong has a lot of other uses, e.g. smells and tastes, and describing skills. – Stuart F Mar 09 '23 at 16:02
  • Right. With try, the idiom is try hard(er), not try strong(ly) Likewise, work strong(ly) sounds very odd. Every word has its own set of uses and partners, and none of them can be interchanged ad lib. – John Lawler Mar 10 '23 at 20:40
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in the context of sports:

Sculthorpe raised hopes of a fightback with a typically strong try but a double from Brian Carney, Wigan's exuberant Irish flyer, put the seal on their night.

The Guardian

Bit of a stretch, since the phrase is strong not strongly.

gregory
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    That's using "strong" as an adjective rather than an adverb. "A try" in rugby parlance s a noun referring to a way of scoring and the OP is asking about the use of "try" as a verb meaning "attempt". – BoldBen Jan 18 '21 at 03:56
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    If I'm not mistaken "try" here isn't a verb but a noun, specifically a type of score in rugby somewhat akin to a touchdown in US football. The teams referenced I believe are rugby teams, and "flyer" is a position on a rugby team. Moreover "strong" is an adjective which would apply to a noun not a verb. – Fraser Orr Jan 19 '21 at 19:59