Forum: english.stackexchange.com
Tags: <word-choice><verb-phrases>
Title: Difference between "try to do" and "try and do"
Question: What is the difference between  try to do  and  try and do ?  To me (non-native speaker), asking someone  try and do this  seems a bit rude. It's like saying you can try all you want but this must be done: try and fail is not an option. However, asking someone  try to do this  means I am asking you to try: success is bonus, failure is OK.

Answers:
sents: text: "Try and" has largely been relegated to colloquial use, and "try to" is generally considered the correct form.
text: They are basically synonymous. "
text: Try and" is not really more rude, in my opinion.
text: According to alt.usage.english , "try and" is probably older than "try to," and, when used, implies success or failure of whatever action is being attempted.
text: As far as speech goes though, they're the same thing.
text: If you're writing, "try and" is generally discouraged.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/23/kitukwfyer
score: 36
sents: text: Try and is a paraphrase of try to , typically used in informal promises and instructions, as in: I’ll try and keep in touch with her [and] Try and come soon.
text: It expresses a supportive attitude, as Fowler (1926) noticed, and has a particular interpersonal role to play, hence its relatively high frequency in conversation.
text: From the article in ‘The Cambridge Guide to English Usage’
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/12952/Barrie England
score: 9
sents: text: "Try and...", while accepted in everyday usage, always sounds wrong to me, as if the speaker is commanding you to do two things:
text: try something unspecified , and then do this other thing .
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/34/Gary
score: 5
sents: text: I believe "try and do" is more of an oral expression, but has the same meaning as "try to do".
text: In writing, I would always use "try to do".
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/110/VonC
score: 4
sents: text: "Try and do" is the form of "try to do" in my native dialect (centered in Pittsburgh, maybe), and probably wouldn't sound strange to any American or Canadian.
text: A related construction is "needs done" instead of "needs to be done", which is more rare outside that dialect.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/152/Taldaugion
score: 4
sents: text: When in doubt, remember the words of the great orator, Bart Simpson: "I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try." On my suggestion, now enshrined in the Guardian style guide : try to never "try and".
text: As Bart Simpson put it: "I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try"
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/9001/Hugo
score: 3
sents: text: There is no difference.
text: "Try to" is the "classic" version -- "try and" has been increasing in usage recently (and is quite the pet peeve of mine),
text: but I've never known an English speaker to see a difference in meaning between the two.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/58/J.T. Grimes
score: 1
sents: text: This is really strange, in Norwegian it's a lot of confusion between homphones "og" (meaning and ) and "å" (equivalent to the word to ) that are pronounced the same (the g is silent, and o is sometimes the same sound as å, which is approximately the same sound as the vowel in "wall").
text: This is not surprising, but I've noticed the same confusion occur in related languages like English where it's not homophones.
text: Perhaps it's something about the grammar of the Germanic languages that causes this difference to be hard to understand?
text: (There could be a slight intentional difference in meaning between "try to" and "try and" but usually it seems like a mistake)
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/2820/Stein G. Strindhaug
score: 1
sents: text: The use of "try and" seems to me to be an effort to build optimism into the language.
text: If one actually is unsure of success one would appropriately say, "I will try to succeed."
text: However, If there is no doubt that success will occur what need is there to insert "try and" into the phrase when then one could simply say, "I will succeed."
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/59033/PapaBear
score: 1
sents: text: "Try and do" is regarded as a colloquial and ungrammatical version of "try to do", but is really grammatical if you accept that it expresses a slightly different meaning technically.
text: "Try and do" seems to imply that you will try, but that you WILL do something, while "try to do" doesn't seem to express any certainty about the outcome of your trying.
text: That said, people generally use "try and do" to mean "try to do", and you can save it from being labeled ungrammatical by calling it idiomatic.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/16796/Kaiser Octavius
score: 0
sents: text: On way to see that try and instead of try to is wrong is to say it in the past tense.
text: Yesterday, I tried to do something vs yesterday, I tried and do something.
text: Future tense, I will try to do something tomorrow vs I will try and do something tomorrow.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/93591/Earl
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Although it is possible that these two expressions are basically synonymous, "try and" is generally considered more colloquial. "Try and" may generally be discouraged in writing. However, it could be argued that "try to" expressed less certainty about the idea being expressed than "try and".
Both forms are correct, but "try and" is more limited in range (e.g. cannot be used in the past tense) and sounds colloquial or less formal.
Although it is possible that these two expressions are basically synonymous, "try and" is generally considered more colloquial. "Try and" may generally be discouraged in writing. However, it could be argued that "try to" expressed less certainty about the idea being expressed than "try and".
 They are basically synonymous, but "Try and do" is more of an oral expression. "Try and" has now largely been relegated to colloquial use, and "try to" is generally considered the correct form.
They are basically synonymous, especially in speech. However "try and do" is more colloquial.
Whilst most people would probably agree that there is no difference in understanding, "try and" is probably considered more colloquial and should be avoided in writing. Some people also may claim that there is a subtle difference in the level of certainty implied in the two sentences, with "try to" implying less certainty about the success of the activity in question.