this is an all Year's 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 co-workers in English
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 gonna try and get a lot done today so that I can go to the lake tomorrow
what about you are you gonna try and get anything done later I'm gonna try to get some things done
yeah I think so I'm always trying to get something done you know I uh 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 end but you just naturally were saying try to like I'm gonna try
to try to get a lot almost like try duh try to get a lot try to 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 gonna 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 uh 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 a 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 two is more formal right try end
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 not correct interesting but I highly
recommend it for speech because it has a little bit of a more positive connotation then 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 if 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 a
conveying a tone uh 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 I'll 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 there's something
wrong with you or is it such a just sweet it's like Assurance and friendly to be like oh try
and surf 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 and I but to say try to serve overhand feels
critical a little bit different it is kind of a subtle difference 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 no right it's more a real 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 if you're talking to a
co-worker and maybe they need a little extra help with something you're you're using the and instead
of the two yeah here's another example I was going to 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 oh 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 yeah 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 gonna 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 it's like I I'm telling you probably can't either but can you try to open this
you're 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 huh okay let me think about this and I looked up
lots of stuff online there's some conflicting information there were 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
I.T professional at work 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 too yeah politeness it's more polite to use the incorrect grammar
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 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 would be incorrect to say he tries and imagines his future and the
reason is because we have two finite verbs there right to try and yeah to imagine it's also called
the compound predicate this is very complicated grammar but I know it's nice to understand why
why is one incorrect 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 gonna try and get a few
things done or no 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 so both are
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 usually when people use try and they only have one action in mind like this sentence yes 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 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 okay what else do we have to know
here Aubry 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 right and then try and there's no infinitive some people will say that it
has something to do with needing two 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 right 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 okay so that that can't be right then yeah or that is correct yeah or come and
see my new car right yes right 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't yeah it's more examples 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 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 okay we're really getting into
it now I love it it's 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
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 yeah because the verbs don't make sense together they
don't speak to each other right 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 aller's 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 gonna try and Lead this meeting sounds like I
don't think I'm gonna do a very good job so check that one out that was a really good episode guys
if you use the iOS or the end Android app you can always just type 1159 right into your search bar
right that's the only place you can do that for all our Singlish 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 um so anything else here Albert 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 end 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 okay I love this we are back with a quick role play so Aubry 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 ends but try two would also be correct it's not written English so both would be
right got it okay here we go anything you're gonna 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 gonna
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 two
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 try and 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 yeah both
are correct right you're going to 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
gonna 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
um 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 or you know
anything you're going to try to see while you're in town 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 they're not so stiff it's
a young industry too podcasting right so look at your industry and decide what kind of vocabulary
you're going to use at conferences guys based on that okay yeah for sure so then you said I'm
definitely going to try and check that out you for sure could say I'm gonna 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 gonna try and visit the botanical gardens yeah
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 end in every sentence too much of it too much
of it but we 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 others English right four new episodes every week you guys need to hit
follow wherever you find your podcasts all ears English and guys leave a review for the show we
love reading your reviews the questions you send in reviews 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 yeah 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 you know go one level deeper you know
be in don't be stressed but be interested that's what I would say right 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 yeah for sure oh so fun I love it 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 yes 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
thanks for listening to all ears English would you like to know your English level take our two
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