"Try to" vs "Try and"

[DrHappy]

I keep seeing mainstream usage of "try and" and it just seems wrong to me. Is it just me? Or is "try and" grammatically correct?

Examples:

"I will try to fix this."
"I will try and fix this."
​

A slighter different example is when there is another "to" before "try."

"It is time to try to fix this."
"It is time to try and fix this."
​

How do the grammar experts feel about this?

 

[KeithD]

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

"try and The phrase try and is commonly used as a substitute for try to, as in Could you try and make less noise? A number of grammarians have labeled the construction incorrect. To be sure, the usage is associated with informal style and strikes an inappropriately conversational note in formal writing. Sixty-four percent of the usage Panel rejects its use in written contexts as presented in the sentence Why don't you try and see if you can work the problem out between yourselves?"

Note that the difference between the U.S. style usage authorities, Webster's dictionary and the American Heritage dictionary is that Webster's provides what has come to be in general use and the American Heritage provides what language experts believe should be in use.

"Try and" would be one of those identifying terms authors might use in the quoted dialogue of a character who didn't have the best English grammar education.

This from a venerable and widely used usage authority, The Careful Writer, by Theodore M. Bernstein:

"Used in place of the standard try to, as in 'try and be good,' the combination of try with and is generally acknowledged to be characteristic of spoken language, i.e., colloquial."

That's not a "not" to using it in informal fiction usage.

 

[DrHappy]

That looks like a very authoritative answer. I'll continue to not like it and not use it.


Thanks for taking the time to look that up and post it for me!, KeithD!

 

[MetaBob]

That looks like a very authoritative answer. I'll continue to not like it and not use it.

Thanks for taking the time to look that up and post it for me!, KeithD!

I faced this down with a thing I wrote last year. After wrestling with it I decided to be That Guy who doesn't listen to grammar "experts," because it just sounded wrong. The result:

"I'm gonna kiss him, daddy," she shouted. "Try and stop me!"

 

[Athalia]

When Bennett Cerf, that prominent American author, publisher, and editor, published a book called Try and Stop Me, that construction should have received its visa to enter the English language. I would not have cared to have debated its merits to Mr. Cerf.