Try to Understand My Pet Peeve

Word guru Barbara Wallraff responds to a reader's pet peeve on her new Atlantic magazine blog, In a Word. It's a pet peeve of mine too, this misuse of "try and" instead of "try to." The trying part doesn't deserve equal weight as the part that's being tried, such as "Try and understand my dilemma." Or "Try and read this blog with your eyes closed."

But I rarely correct this when I critique my friends' writing. I always figured it would be the quickest way to get myself labeled anal, which indeed I am. And this mistake has become so common, I'd be correcting "try ands" instead of trying to write myself.

My personal history with "try and" vs. "try to" comes from my ninth and twelfth grade English teacher, Miss Jane Whittington. She was a superb teacher. Everything I know about English usage I learned in her class. Take it up with her if you've got an issue with my pedantry.

Wallruff basically tells the questioner to shut up and ignore the issue, especially when the usage occurs in fiction, but I think we should try to mount a concerted effort to reclaim "try to". What do my readers think?

Comments

[Gridlock]

"I made an order"

NO YOU DIDN'T.

YOU PLACED IT.

[KathyF]

Go ahead; try and enforce that.

(See how silly that sounds?)

[Imperatrix]

I'm always changing "try and", "since", and "while" when they are used incorrectly.

Of course, that's my job. That's what they try to pay me the tiny bucks for. I support your concerted effort 100%.

[KathyF]

And for my next trick, I'm going to convince the world that using "that" for a person is wrong.

"He's the guy that's trying to change the world." No, he's the guy "who's" trying to change the world. And not "whose" either.

[Alexis]

I'm with you on this one!

[Diane]

"And for my next trick, I'm going to convince the world that using "that" for a person is wrong."

Amen, sister! It drives me crazy. As does using "where" for "in which" ("...that part in the movie where she...").

But good luck. No one cares. Not the New York Times. Not even NPR.

[bazu]

try and stop me from being a grammar analist!

[Nora]

So nice to know I am not the only one who hates this, though I think my biggest pet peeve at the moment is the British way of using "have" with singular nouns.

[KathyF]

Oh, you mean like collective nouns like "the government are" and "Corporation X have decided". I know; it threw me at first and now I find myself doing it too!

[cookiecrumb]

I majored in linguistics. We used a method of swapping out words, or using them in different tenses, contexts, etc., in order to get to the "best" use of a word. Example:
Imperative (i.e. giving an order): "Try and set me straight!"
Declarative, present progressive: *"I"m trying and set you straight."
(an asterisk in front of a sentence in linguistics means "this sentence doesn't work")
The conclusion would be that "and" doesn't work, and "to" works well in both sentences.
Oy, what a pedant. Sorry.

[KathyF]

cookiecrumb, this is a very useful thing to know. I love pedants.

[kathy a.]

"that" instead of "who" destroys me. also, "jenny and me are going to...."

but, as someone who regularly conducts informal correspondence with no capitalization, i'm forced to remember that thing about glass houses and stones.

[A Free Man]

I'm pretty anal about spelling, but grammar sometimes mystifies me. I'm gonna try and get better.

;)

[Gridlock]

Nora/Kathy;

Are you actually saying that you disapprove of the way the English use English?!

:D

[KathyR]

This is not on my peeve list. Mostly because my peeve list has already exceeded the maximum number of peeves allowed. While you are fighting on the "try and" front, I will continue to battle "alot" and "tad bit." Good luck.

[Gridlock]

"There seems to be less people than last year"

From this sentence I normally assume either drastic weight loss or multiple amputations.