Since no one appears to have any grammar questions at the moment, I’m going to talk about one of my pet peeves: the “try and” construction.

Maybe it’s regional to the Northwest, but it’s one of those minor grammar mistakes that makes my teeth grit every time I read it. And I recently reread several books of a favorite author who uses it frequently, so my jaw is just a bit sore at the moment.

Here’s the technical problem with “try and”: “Try” is a verb. In all but the simplest sentences, a verb needs an object. And some verbs need prepositions to connect them to their objects (other verbs don’t need a preposition). “To” is a preposition, but “and” is a conjunction. So the construction “try and” is nonsensical unless followed by something other than the object of the verb “try.”

For example, in “try and fail,” “fail” is another verb, so “and” is properly joining the two verbs with an implied object (in this case, the implied object would be “to succeed,” but the phrase “try to succeed” is patently redundant).

If the whole parts-of-speech thing gives you a headache (and it does that to many people), here’s another way to look at it. “Try” is a synonym for “attempt.” Does the sentence “Attempt and do something” make any sense? Well, neither does the construction “try and do something.”

Ow! There goes the teeth-gritting again.

Until next time, We remain your humble servant,

The Grammar Queen