this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025

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English usage and grammar

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6

"Try and..." compared to "Try to..." (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world to c/english@lemmy.ca

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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 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

but it doesn’t make any sense

It's a contraction of two thoughts:

Try
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