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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
"I'll try and finish the job"
Horrible.
"I'll try to finish the job"
Nice, and better even in a colloquial sense, as:
"Will you finish the job tomorrow?"
- can be answered with:
"I'll try to"
go, come and send are different, my Kiwoid and nuncloid friends - "I'll try and do it" simply doesn't make sense. As Sparteye says and Helen the Yodic implies, you try and succeed (in which case the job is done) or you try and fail (in which case the job's not done).
Steve Harley's "Come Up And See Me", however, isn't bad English. It's a request for his love to come up to his part of town, upstairs flat, whatever and to see him whilst she's (ho's ??) there.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
There are differences in meaning, for me.
"I'll try and get the program done this afternoon" means that the program is much less likely to be finished than "I'll try to get the program done this afternoon." In this case the "to" adds some degree of certainty, while the "and" expresses your doubt that you'll get it done.
Similarly, if you tell someone "Please try and keep your room in order," you're not really expecting them to take your advice, compared to "Please try to keep your room in order." The "to" makes it more command-y.
Try and say those last two sentences out loud. The whole rhythm of the sentences changes, and this affects where the "high point" of tone (and thus meaning) is in each one.
FWIW, I would never write the colloquial "try and" unless I was writing the words of a character who needed to say that specifically.
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