Should we use try and or try to? Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage says it’s grammatically permissible to “try and go to the store,” or to ask someone to “try and speak up.” However, a fan of formality ought to stick with try to. Still, Grant warns against trying to force logic on the English language by creating rules that don’t exist. Jack Lynch has an opinion on it, too. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Try And vs Try To”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Meredith and I’m calling from San Diego.
Welcome, Meredith.
Hi, Meredith.
Hi there.
I had a question about a pet peeve.
Okay.
You want to know what to feed it?
This actually is an inherited pet peeve from my mother.
And she’s sort of chief of the grammar police.
They’re like parrots.
They live for a very long time.
I know.
It’s amazing.
I cannot get rid of it.
And it’s the use of try and as opposed to try to.
Her point is that if you try and do something, you’ve basically already predetermined that you will accomplish it.
The use of try and is grammatically incorrect, and you should say try to.
And that’s the thing.
You inherit something like that from your mother, and then you just carry it with you.
I know.
My father gave me a radio when I was a boy that when he passed it on to me, I thought that it was a relic.
It was this thing that I should protect and care for forever.
And then I found out that it was a mass-produced radio that they made like 25 million of.
I didn’t think so highly of it after that.
Exactly.
Sometimes the heirlooms that were given aren’t worth as much as we’re led to believe in the beginning.
I don’t even know if it is grammatically incorrect or if it’s just my mom’s own.
Is your mother still with us?
Yes.
Okay.
She’s probably listening.
Is she now?
Yeah.
Okay, you might want to turn off the radio.
Okay.
One of the reference works that we turn to from time to time is the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage.
It’s kind of the more progressive, permissive sphere of language commentary.
I tend to rely upon it.
I do sometimes quibble with it.
But there’s a great line in the entry for try and.
Okay.
In spite of what critics believe, infinitives are used in many constructions without to.
And in some of those constructions, they use and.
So we have try and is okay.
Try and go to the store.
Try and spell differently.
Try and speak up.
You do not require the two in there in order to make that grammatical.
It’s like we often say, some of the things in English that we do are idiomatic, and sometimes it’s just a matter of accepting them for what they are, and don’t over-parse them for logic.
It’s a gigantic mistake to over-parse English looking for rules that aren’t there and that there’s no need for.
Okay.
Yeah, there are some style guides that will say that try-and is a little bit more informal, and there are people like your mother and you and me.
Don’t tell Grant, but and me.
Who have thought this through and who thought that try and means you’re absolutely going to be successful.
Right.
I’m going to try and get somebody on the phone.
There’s no doubt about it.
And there are some style guides that will tell you that if you’re going to be formal about it, it won’t trip people up if you say try to.
But, you know.
Part of the logic, and I don’t know the details of your mother’s argument, but part of the logic from people who share her opinion is that try should almost always be followed by an action.
It should be followed by a verb or an infinitive that you’re going to try to do something.
Right.
And try actually doesn’t require that.
Try can be followed in a variety of ways by other kinds of implications, if that makes sense.
So try and do better.
Okay.
So I’m going to try and do better.
I promise to do better.
It’s that both of them go together.
Both are going to happen.
That’s another kind of overparsing English.
Accept try-in as idiomatic.
Accept it for what it is.
Know that it’s been in English for hundreds of years, used by the best writers.
All of these people who are using this aren’t all making an error.
They actually represent the data that support that this is a useful case in English.
It’s something useful to have in our language.
Okay.
I will go back to her and explain that this is not grammatically incorrect.
We’ll link to some sources on the website to explain it in a little more nuanced fashion.
So that I’m not left to my own devices.
Right, right, right.
And maybe she can adopt another pet peeve.
Yeah, she’s got plenty.
I wouldn’t worry about it.
I was going to say, there’s no shortage.
Why is your hair like that?
They all need good homes.
When do you get a better job?
Is he good enough for you?
Two are as easy as one, just like cats.
Exactly.
All right, well, great talking with you.
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Round up your peeves and herd them on over our way.
Or take photos of your peeves and send them to us at words@waywordradio.org.
