This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1854.
Try and use this interesting English grammar.
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In the English language, when is it better to say try to and when should you say try and?
Today.
Find out which one implies assurance, so that you can use this subtle grammar to connect with friends and coworkers in English.
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That's allearsenglish.com slash letter B number two.
Hey, Lindsay.
How are you?
I'm doing awesome.
Aubrey, how are you?
What's going on in your world?
I'm great.
It's a busy day.
I am going to try and get a lot done today so that I can go to the lake tomorrow.
What about you?
Are you going to try and get anything done later?
I'm going to try to get some things done.
Yeah, I think so.
I'm always trying to get something done.
You know, I yeah, I think I will.
Interesting.
Okay, so guys, you'll you might want to go back and listen to the beginning.
We're talking about try and versus try to.
A listener wrote in this question.
It's very interesting.
And I noticed when I responded I'm saying try and, but you just naturally were saying try to like I'm going to try to try to get a lot, almost like try to try to get a lot.
Try to get a lot.
So clearly, guys, both are very natural, right?
Try and and try to.
And we have a great listener question today about this, right?
Which one to use?
Is that what we're talking about?
Yeah, we're going to dive into which one to use or why we use different ones.
So let's go ahead and read that question.
All right, here we go.
So our listener says, hello there.
First, I'd like to thank you girls for being such fabulous hosts.
I recently found out about your podcast and thanks to a best English podcast search on Google.
And I'm so thankful for having the chance to listen to you guys.
I just love your approach, since it's not only based on linguistic features, but also cultural awareness.
Absolutely.
We talk a lot about culture.
Yeah.
You're super joyful, enthusiastic, energetic kind of talk.
Definitely makes our day worthwhile.
That's so great.
So nice.
I love that.
I love that.
Very happy that we could make this listener's day better.
As for my question, I'd like to know whether there's a difference in meaning between these two structures.
Try to find another resource and try and find another resource.
I noticed that native speakers use both structures.
Try to plus verb and try and.
Plus verb.
Is there any difference whatsoever?
Thanks a million.
Oh, my gosh.
This this listener sounds very high level.
Definitely.
Just to notice that we do both.
Right.
Very high level and definitely getting to that higher level where you're really wanting to sound like natives and understand why they say things certain ways.
Yeah, this is interesting.
So let's dive right in.
Right.
So try to is more formal.
Right.
Try and is a colloquialism, a familiar expression that we use in informal speech.
It shouldn't be used for formal writing because the grammar is actually not correct.
That's not correct.
Interesting.
But I highly recommend it for speech because it has a little bit of a more positive connotation than try to
Just a really subtle connotation of...
Friendship or luck or assurance, whereas try to is either more neutral or might even have a slightly negative connotation, especially if you're talking about ability.
Oh, isn't it funny how just one little preposition can make the difference, right?
One little thing, one little word in this case, I guess, can make the difference in a tone or kind of conveying a tone.
And what's fascinating is, this is one of those places where we're intentionally using incorrect grammar to be even more informal and sort of like, friendly here.
Here's some examples that will point out why I would never say to someone try to serve over the net when we're playing volleyball.
It feels...
Just a little bit negative.
It's implying that it's difficult for them.
I would say try and serve over the net.
It's more friendly.
I'm assuring them.
I'm not assuming they can't.
It's tricky, but it's so subtle.
Yeah, I don't know.
I just think.
When I think about that, I just think of someone just having a really hard time.
When you say try to get it over the net.
Yeah, it really does convey that you're having a problem.
Like you can't play volleyball or something wrong with you.
Whereas it's such a just sweet, it's like assurance and friendly to be like, oh, try and serve over.
Right.
I think of like we're playing with kids like 14 year olds a lot here at my mom's and we were encouraging that we want them to try.
So I'd say try and serve over.
Right.
Try or try.
Try and serve overhand instead of like an underhand serve.
But to say try to serve overhand feels critical.
A little bit different.
It is kind of a subtle difference, though, I would say.
It's not significant, right?
It's not going to hit people over the head.
Like, oh, my God, I can't believe she said, try to do this.
It's more a choice of words can make a difference in the overall connection in that moment.
If you're trying to teach a kid how to do something or you're talking to a coworker and maybe they need a little extra help with something, you're using the and instead of the two.
Here's another example go ahead yeah, go ahead.
I was gonna say it's exactly right when it's a co-worker imagine in a business meeting to say can you try to clarify what you mean by that, as opposed to can you try and clarify what you mean by that?
It's so subtle, but the first one implies that they might struggle to do that, whereas the second one feels so friendly.
I think our listeners are ready for this kind of subtlety.
I love when we hit these incredible subtleties of English that are kind of an art form to understand.
And you guys are going to get it by the time we finish today.
So let's do some more examples.
Let me give our listeners an example.
Opening a jar, right?
So can you try to open this?
This implies that we think they actually can't do it.
Right.
Right.
And then can you try and open this?
This just assumes probably you're going to be able to do it.
Hey, can you, you know, can you just do it?
Right.
Yes.
It's so interesting.
Right.
If I can't open a jar of jam and I hand it to someone to try, I'd be like, can you try and open this?
I'm going to use and there because if I say, can you try to open it?
It's like I'm telling you probably can't either.
But can you try to open this?
It's so funny.
I don't know if I've ever actually intentionally thought about the fact that these two mean something different.
It's just that as a native speaker, I just automatically pivot to the and when I want to soften.
But I don't know if I've ever actually thought about this before.
I hadn't either.
I had to do a little research.
So I'm like, okay, let me think about this.
And I looked up lots of stuff online.
There's some conflicting information.
There was some really good info on Grammarly.
And there's some conflicting info about.
So we're going to dive into the grammar in a minute.
We wanted to share lots of good sentences, but we are going to dive into like why is it grammatically incorrect?
Because I know you guys want to know, like, why is one right and why is one wrong?
Okay, let's let's get maybe one more example for our listeners.
And then we'll move on to that grammar part.
What do you think?
Yeah, so this I think is a good one.
Imagine you're asking an IT professional at work for help with your computer.
If you say, can you try to fix my computer?
It sounds a little bit like you think they might not be able to.
But if you say, can you try and fix my computer?
That sounds like, you know, they can do it.
You're just asking them to do it.
And you're trying to indirectly ask them to do it, too.
There's a little bit of an indirectness and not trying to impose as well here.
Yeah, politeness.
It's more polite to use the incorrect grammar.
So funny.
I love it.
So why is this?
You know, which one is again, remind our listeners, which one is grammatically correct and why?
Exactly.
So try to is the one that's grammatically correct.
This matters a lot more for writing, guys, because it's a colloquialism.
This is accepted when you're speaking and And actually often preferable because it's, like you said, less direct, more polite, more kind sometimes.
But when you're writing, it does matter.
It would be correct to say he tries to imagine his future.
Right.
And it would be incorrect to say he tries and imagines his future.
Right.
And the reason is because we have two finite verbs there, right?
To try and to imagine.
It's also called a compound predicate.
This is very complicated grammar, but I know it's nice to understand why.
Why is one incorrect?
Yeah.
Our listeners are ready for it.
They are ready for it.
Yeah.
So when the and gets used, because I think at the beginning of the episode, what did I say?
I'm going to try and get a few things done.
Or no, you used and.
I said and.
You said too.
I'm going to try to get a few things done.
Because the reason there's no negative connotation there.
It has nothing to do with a person's ability, right?
Right, equal.
There's no right or wrong.
There's a little bit about maybe, where you're from, what you hear more often right okay, but when it comes to writing, you would definitely need to say try to now.
Here's why, if you had two actions in mind right, trying and imagining that would be grammatically correct.
But We usually, when people use try and they only have one action in mind, like this sentence
We only have this one action of imagining your future.
And in that case, it's incorrect to say try and.
Yeah, because it sounds like you're doing two separate things.
He tries and he imagines his future.
No, it's not.
That's not what we're trying to say.
Exactly.
It wouldn't make sense.
If you break it down and say, like you know, for example, he tries and he imagines his future, then it makes no sense.
So that's how you know it's grammatically wrong.
Yes, I love it.
OK, what else do we have to know here, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So here's the trick.
When I was looking it up online.
And you guys, if you do a deep dive, you're going to see conflicting information.
And that's what's interesting because of the infinitive, try to write and then try, and there's no infinitive.
Some people will say that it has something to do with needing to before every infinitive.
But here's why that's incorrect, right?
When two separate actions are being described, it is correct to have and between the verbs without an infinitive.
For example...
Go and get your mom.
You could say you must go and you must get your mom.
It's two separate actions.
You don't need the infinitive.
Makes sense.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That makes sense.
OK, so that that can't be right then.
Yeah.
Or that is correct.
Yeah.
Or come and see my new car.
Right.
Yes.
You could say, you must come to my house and you must see my new car.
There's two separate actions.
Or we'll say, stop and chat a while.
Two separate actions.
We want you to stop and we want you to chat for a while.
So you're saying we can say these, right, Aubrey, just to be clear?
We can say these.
These are examples.
Yeah, it's more of an issue of like, why is it wrong?
It's not because infinitives have to have two before them.
It's not about that.
It's the fact that it's a colloquialism, right?
It's you, if you have just one action...
You can't have, you know, try and with two, with just one action, because that's indicating two separate actions.
Oh, boy.
OK, we're really getting into it now.
Interesting.
So it's just interesting to know why.
But I think the takeaway really is just you guys can say try and, but you'll notice all these examples we're giving you here.
Go and get your mom, come and see my new car.
None of them are with try.
Anytime it's try, try and is always incorrect grammar because, right, what's the second verb?
It's right.
You would have to have a sentence where you really want that.
Maybe like try and win would maybe work if you're saying like I want you to try and I want you to win.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Because the verbs don't make sense together.
They don't speak to each other.
Right.
It's like go and get your mom.
Go and get they speak to each other.
It's a natural progression.
Go and get your mom.
Come and see my car.
Stop and chat a while.
They all work together.
Exactly.
As two separate actions.
Yes, I love that.
That's a good point.
Okay, good to know.
Good to know.
And you know, we're showing you guys these nuances.
Is there another episode where we talked about try?
Yes, this was really interesting.
If you guys missed it, go back and check out All Ears English 1159.
We talked about using that word try and how sometimes it comes off as not being confident enough.
If I say like, I'm going to try and lead this meeting.
It sounds like I don't think I'm going to do a very good job.
So check that one out.
That was a really good episode, guys.
If you use the iOS or the Android app, you can always just type eleven fifty, nine right into your search bar.
Right.
That's the only place you can do that for all our English and you can pull it up right away.
But if you're in the podcast player, Apple podcast or Spotify, you can also scroll down and get it.
All right.
Good stuff.
So anything else here, Aubrey, before we get into the role play?
No.
Yeah, I think it's such an interesting question.
It really is higher level, like you said.
To notice this first of all and to be wondering like which can I use?
I think the bottom line is when you're speaking.
Both are correct.
Try to or try and.
But when you're writing, you have to realize that try and is incorrect grammar.
And if you're wanting to write correctly, then you're going to want to say try to.
Good stuff.
OK, I love this.
We are back with a quick role play.
So, Aubrey, what is going on here?
Yes.
You and I just met at a business conference.
So these because we're speaking.
Right.
We might be saying some try and but try to would also be correct.
It's not written English.
So both would be right.
Got it.
OK, here we go.
Anything you're going to try and see while you're in town?
Oh, yeah.
I heard there's a natural history museum, so I'm definitely going to try and check that out.
Oh, fun.
I'm going to try and visit the botanical gardens.
I wish I had more time to try and do everything.
Nice.
I have a question for you.
Did it feel weird to you to say try and?
Did you feel like you should say try to?
Yeah, there was a little too much for me, for my taste, too much try and in here.
It is informal.
I think this is a good point.
It depends on.
I say triad a lot more often, I think, because where I'm from maybe the Northwest or just the West in general we say it more.
More relaxed.
Yeah, for sure.
Both are correct, right?
You're going to hear both.
And it's so subtle.
It's so subtle, the difference.
It's so subtle.
I love the subtleties.
Let's go through this real quick.
So first you said anything you're going to try and see while we're in town, right?
While you're in town.
Yeah, I think it's good to point out like we just met at this business conference, so it's sort of a little more formal business situation.
But we're still speaking very informally because of the context.
We're talking about what we might do in our free time.
So it would be very strange to say are you know anything?
You're going to try to see while you're right, I'm speaking very informally even though we don't know each other that well.
Yeah, it's true.
And you know, I guess it depends on your industry obviously, but I think conferences are getting a little more casual now.
At least when I go to the podcasting conference, I never I would never wear like jeans.
I would never do that.
But people are more casual and they're more conversational, you know.
Now, they're not so stiff.
It's a young industry to podcasting.
Right.
So look at your industry and decide what kind of vocabulary you're going to use at conferences guys, based on that.
OK.
Yeah, for sure.
So then you said, I'm definitely going to try and check that out.
You for sure can say, I'm going to try to check that out.
Because there's no we're not talking about anyone's ability here.
So there's no difference.
There's no implied meaning of someone not being able to go check out a natural history museum.
Right.
I love that.
And then you said, oh, fun.
I'm going to try and visit the botanical gardens.
Yes.
And then you said, I wish I had more time to try and do everything.
And because I'm trying to shove a bunch into this role play, it probably would be more natural just to say I wish I had more time to do everything.
Because we definitely wouldn't say try and in every sentence.
No, no, no.
That's why it sounded weird.
Too much of it.
Too much of it.
But you guys know you don't repeat things that much in a conversation.
But just for the sake of the example, we want to show it to you.
Yeah.
What should our listeners do before we finish up?
Make sure we don't miss any All Ears English.
Right.
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So wherever you find your podcast, you can also leave us a review.
Yeah, you guys can ask your question right inside that review, because we do read every single review.
So we'll see your question and we'll add it to our list.
What's the takeaway for our listeners?
Guys, we don't want English grammar to intimidate you.
If you hear this, you hear people are doing it both ways.
I'm so glad we were able to give this quick breakdown, because even natives argue about really subtle, complicated grammar points like this.
It's valuable to know the rules, but do not stress about it.
Definitely, guys.
And go one level deeper.
Don't be stressed, but be interested.
That's what I would say.
Don't be stressed, but be interested because you are ready for these subtleties at your level.
If you understand 75% of this podcast, you're ready for subtleties like this.
So now you will start to notice them and you'll be able to use them.
Yes, for sure.
Oh, so fun.
I love I love grammar episodes.
I think it's so interesting.
I love these questions.
I love that our listeners are also interested in these nuances of the language.
Yeah, we can't wait to see your questions, you know, for the fall.
We can't wait to see what great questions you guys send to us.
So if you don't want to.
Well, I guess the best thing is just write your question in your review, guys.
Leave us a review and write your question right in there.
Good stuff.
All right.
I'll talk to you very soon.
Have a good one.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
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