Try and avoid “try and.” That’s what I usually do. I try and come up with ways to remember to say “try to” instead. I try and try and try, but sometimes I forget and use “try and” in place of “try to.” So I try and forgive myself for that.
“Try and” is a subject on which the grammar geeks are right but the grammar snobs are rabid. Reasonable people argue that “try and” is a grammatical mess. Snobs argue that any use of “try and” is a personal affront that gives them license to insult others at will.
As I said, “try and” opponents have a strong case. We know that verb compounds use infinitives, such as “to relax,” in contexts like, “try to relax.” By putting “and” in place of “to,” you no longer have an infinitive verb, so you’re no longer constructing a correct sentence. Sure, sometimes “and” comes before a verb in the middle of a sentence—“Grammar snobs whine and moan”—but that’s because these are two separate actions. It’s a different construction from ones that require infinitives, such as, “I want to go,” “I ask to be excused,” and “I wait to be called on.” You’d never say, “I want and go,” “I ask and be excused,” or “I wait and be called on,” because these are all nonsense.
On the other hand, lots of idioms are nonsense, “throw up” being an example that comes immediately to mind. But this doesn’t stop the snobs from going ape spit over “try and.”
“It drives me crazy to hear ‘try and,’ ” and “It annoys me almost daily,” are two of the many emotionally disproportionate comments that have landed in my in-box.
Style book author Bill Walsh bolsters the cause: “Never, ever use ‘try and’ instead of ‘try to.’ ”
But just because these people try and appoint themselves president of the English language doesn’t mean they can try and ignore the even more venerable authorities who disagree.
Strunk and White say to stick to “try to,” but they modify this recommendation with the following disclaimer: “Students of the English language will argue that ‘try and’ has won through and become an idiom. Indeed it has, and it is relaxed and acceptable.”
Garner’s Modern American Usage goes even further, defending “try and” as a “casualism” in American English and a “standard idiom” in British English.
Once again we see that the average Joe is getting jerked around by people who try and declare themselves the law of the land in blatant defiance of the last person who declared himself the law of the land.
Here’s what you should try and remember. When you’re speaking or writing for an audience that might include some language aficionados, try and avoid “try and.” But when you’re faced with a snob, try and drive him up a wall. The best way I’ve found to try and drive them nuts is by writing a grammar book that crams twenty-three “try ands” into a single chapter.