Want to practise your reading skills?
Try The Reading Room, our new series of magazine-style articles.
What's best, a morning shower or an evening shower?
What can magic teach us about the brain?
Making friends as you get older.
These are all topics you'll discover in the series.
Each article comes with highlighted vocabulary, comprehension questions and an audio download.
Learn about the world and improve your reading skills with The Reading Room.
I'm always trying to give advice to my kids.
And sometimes they listen, but not always.
They think they know best, but that's what teenagers are like.
So I have to expect that.
Well, I think you should try and put yourself in the other person's shoes.
So imagine how they're feeling when you're giving that advice.
Hello and welcome to Learning English Grammar.
I'm Pippa.
And I'm Phil.
We've just heard Beth and Neil talking about giving advice.
And today we're going to talk all about advice and also how to use the verb try.
Now you can read along with this podcast using the transcript on our website, bbclearningenglishcom.
So, Phil, what's the best advice you could give someone?
Oh, I think it's really important to look at what you think is really important in life and kind of work towards that.
Yeah, I think always try not to compare yourself to other people.
Don't worry about what everyone else is doing.
Just focus on what you want to do, which is a similar kind of advice, I suppose.
OK, well, we asked Beth and Neil about life advice.
What's the best advice they could give to help people in life?
Have a listen and see how Neil and Beth use the word try and especially which words come after it.
Well I think you should try to find activities that you know that you will enjoy.
So, for example, if you want to go wine tasting and you know you're going to enjoy it because you like wine well, just go and do it.
I think everyone should try to enjoy themselves.
Try to see the funny side of things, try not to take things too seriously.
Try enjoying yourself because you only live once and who knows when that will end.
So, I heard Beth say that you should try to find activities that you know you will enjoy.
That's try followed by the infinitive with to.
I also heard Neil say that people should try enjoying themselves, and that's try followed by an ing form.
I wonder if there's someone who can explain if there's any difference between using the infinitive and the ing form after try.
Look, you know there is, Phil, and I'll just call her now.
Yes, it's me, Georgie.
You want me to try to explain how to use try.
So when we're giving advice, we often follow try with the infinitive with to or the ing form.
Well, I think you should try to find activities that you know that you will enjoy.
I think everyone should try to enjoy themselves.
Try to see the funny side of things, try not to take things too seriously.
Try enjoying yourself.
OK, and is there any other common way that we say this, Georgie?
Yes, there is.
It is a bit informal, but we use it a lot, especially when we're speaking.
Listen to Beth here.
What does she say after try?
Well, I think you should try and put yourself in the other person's shoes.
So imagine how they're feeling when you're giving that advice.
Beth said that you should try and put yourself in someone else's shoes.
As long as we don't have tries or tried, we can use try and instead of try to.
But it's quite informal, as I said, so it's probably best not to use it in formal writing.
So, Georgie, you've given us some options here, which is great.
But is there any time when it matters whether we use try to or try in an ING form?
Yes.
So in Neil and Beth's examples they were talking about using try to refer to attempting something difficult that they might fail at.
Another way we can use try is to advise someone to attempt something, just to find out what happens or to see whether it will change how they feel about it.
When we do that we can only use the ing form after try.
Listen to Neil here talking about advice that his dad had given him.
So my dad used to be a London commuter and when I first worked in London um, He gave me advice about catching your train or tube home.
He said never run for a train if you think you're going to be late.
Just try waiting for the next one instead.
It's going to be just a few more minutes and it's not as stressful as running.
So try to stay calm and just relax.
Neil's dad was saying that it's a good idea to wait for the next train and see how that affects your day and how you feel.
He used the ING form, try waiting.
Waiting for the next train is not something that's difficult to do.
You're not likely to fail at it.
He then says, try to stay calm.
He's used the infinitive here because that might not be easy to do.
Great.
Thanks, Georgie.
Glad I could help.
See you next time.
Bye.
OK, so let's recap.
If we're talking about attempting to do something difficult, we can use try and the infinitive with to or try and the ing form of the verb.
If we're being informal, we can also say try and.
But if we're suggesting that someone attempts something, to see what happens, then we usually only use try and the ing form.
OK, Phil, let's play a game to practice what we've learnt.
I'm going to describe a situation and you have to give me some advice using try.
And if you're listening to this, try and think of a sentence you could say using try.
Are you ready?
Yes.
Right, so I want to take up running, but I think it's hard to start doing it.
Try doing very short runs first and build up to it.
OK.
Sounds good.
Next one.
I'm really busy at work this week and I don't know what to do.
Try and do all the hardest things first, then the rest will feel easier.
Like it.
Sounds good.
And finally, I want to learn a new language.
That one's easy.
Try to find a great podcast to help you.
Now, that one sounds like a really good idea.
What's the best life advice you could give someone?
Let us know by emailing us at learningenglish at bbc.co.uk.
That's it for this episode.
We learnt that Neil's dad doesn't mind missing his train.
And we learnt when to use try to, try and…
And try doing.
We'll be back next week with some more grammar tips.
In the meantime, you can test what you've learnt in this episode with the worksheets on our website, bbclearningenglishcom.
Bye for now.
Bye.
