this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
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English usage and grammar

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The phrase "try and do [something]" has become ubiquitous, but it doesn't make any sense. If you say "I'm going to try and eat this whole pie", you're saying you're going to try to eat the whole pie, and you're going to eat the whole pie. You're making two statements, joined by "and." You can skip the "Try and..." part.

It should nearly always be "try to...", instead of "try and..."

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

but it doesn’t make any sense

It's a contraction of two thoughts:

  1. Try

  2. Do it like this

Try to

Is telling someone a different way might help.

There's differences but in spoken language we don't pick words consciously all the time. So don't dwell on the minute differences

[–] BussyGyatt@feddit.org 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

just cuz it aint standard grammar doesnt mean it dont make no sense. Grammatical construction and parsability are independent; while grammar is intended to make language easier to parse, it often fails in that. Don't get 'em twisted.

[–] WatDabney@sopuli.xyz 0 points 5 months ago

"Try and" is grammatically poorly constructed, but it's actually not quite synonymous with "try to." The meanings of the two phrases are (likely not coincidentally) different in the same sense that the phrases themselves are different - "try and" is sort of informal and casual, while "try to" is a bit more formal and precise.

For instance - you and a friend are moving some boxes, some of which are heavy and/or awkward enough that it takes both of you to move them.

Regarding one box, you say, "I'm going to try and pick it up." The implication then is merely that you're going to check to see if it's something you can carry by yourself.

If, on the other hand, you say, "I'm going to try to pick it up." That carries more of an implication that you're going to make a concerted effort - not just that you're going to check quickly if it's feasible, but that you've established it as a goal toward which you intend to invest effort.

[–] pglpm@lemmy.ca 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

There is an interesting (as usual) two-page discussion on try and in Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. A snapshot is enclosed; apologies for visually impaired people (I'll try to attach a text later). Some of the takeaways:

The use of and between two verbs where to might be expected (to would seem unlikely in some of the constructions) is an old one in English. The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] has examples back to the 16th century; the Middle English Dictionary has examples as far back as the 13th. The verbs most often used in this construction in past centuries were begin, go, take, and come — the last three of which are still so used. Try did not appear as try and until the17th century, when our familiar sense of the word was first established. Interestingly, the earliest example for the "make an attempt" sense in the OED involves the try and construction, so try and may actually be older than try to.

[...]

But try and has actually been common in print for about a century and a half, as the following garland of examples amply shows. You will observe that most of the examples are not from highly formal styles; many are from speech and fictional speech and from familiar letters: [...] These examples show that try and has been socially acceptable for these two centuries but that it is not used in an elevated style.

[...]

The judgment of try and in Fowler 1926 remains eminently sensible today: "It is an idiom that should be not discountenanced, but used when it comes natural."

[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago
[–] jaselle@lemmy.ca 0 points 5 months ago

You can read about this curious turn of phrase on the Yale Grammatic Diversity project.