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?
