Try to/and do it.

[Marika33]

What's the difference between "Try to do it" and "Try and do it"?

• She said, "Try to do it."
• She said, "Try and do it."
  
  
• I tried to do it.
• I tried and did it.

 

[jutfrank]

I've long thought that this is a great question, which few people ask and which extremely few textbooks mention. In fact, I've never come across a single one, despite how incredibly common it is to use 'try and'.

Imagine someone asking her friend to help check whether her phone is working properly:

Can you try and call me?
Can you try to call me?

The only difference that I can detect is that the former is a bit more casual.

I tried to call you.
I tried and called you.

It doesn't work at all in the past tense. You can't say 'tried and'.

 

[Marika33]

Can you try and call me?
Can you try to call me?

The only difference that I can detect is that the former is a bit more casual.

It doesn't work at all in the past tense. You can't say 'tried and'.

Got it, thank you!

I thought that if someone says, "Try and do it", they are expressing a greater intention, as if the goal is necessarily to be accomplished. Whereas "Try to do it" doesn't have that "mandatory" connotation. Was my understanding wrong?

 

[jutfrank]

I thought that if someone says, "Try and do it", they are expressing a greater intention, as if the goal is necessarily to be accomplished. Whereas "Try to do it" doesn't have that "mandatory" connotation. Was my understanding wrong?

You may have a good point there but I need to properly understand what you mean. Can you give us some context to work with?

 

[Marika33]

Can you give us some context to work with?

I can think of a boss telling his subordinate, "Try and do it!", using this particular construction to sound tougher.

 

[jutfrank]

I can think of a boss telling his subordinate, "Try and do it!", using this particular construction to sound tougher.

It isn't typically used in such exclamatory imperatives, I don't think.