"Try and..." compared to "Try to..."

There is an interesting (as usual) two-page discussion on try and in Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage. A snapshot is enclosed; apologies to visually impaired people (I’ll try to attach a text later). Some of the takeaways:

The use of try and in contexts where try to would be possible has been subject to criticism since the 19th century. The issue continues to enjoy great popularity, although a number of usage commentators, including Fowler 1926, Evans 1957, and Follett 1966, are on record as recognizing that try and is an established standard idiom. Copperud 1980 remarks about one complicated attempt to differentiate between try and and try to, “This proves nothing but the lengths to which the wrongheaded will go to make nonexistent points.”

[…]

The use of and between two verbs where to might be expected (*to* would seem unlikely in some of the constructions) is an old one in English. The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] has examples back to the 16th century; the Middle English Dictionary has examples as far back as the 13th. The verbs most often used in this construction in past centuries were *begin*, go*, *take*, and *come — the last three of which are still so used. Try did not appear as try and until the 17th century, when our familiar sense of the word was first established. Interestingly, the earliest example for the “make an attempt” sense in the OED involves the try and construction, so try and may actually be older than try to.

[…]

A popular misconception among those who disparage try and is that the construction has only recently become widespread […] But try and has actually been common in print for about a century and a half, as the following garland of examples amply shows. You will observe that most of the examples are not from highly formal styles; many are from speech and fictional speech and from familiar letters: […] These examples show that try and has been socially acceptable for these two centuries but that it is not used in an elevated style.

[…]

The judgment of try and in Fowler 1926 remains eminently sensible today: “It is an idiom that should be not discountenanced, but used when it comes natural.”

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary states the following under “usage":

Try can be followed by either to or and in sentences such as “we should try to (or try and) help them”. However, some traditionalists regard try and as incorrect, while try to is seen as more appropriate in formal writing. The construction try and is grammatically odd in that it cannot be inflected for tense (e.g. the sentence “she tried and fix it” is incorrect). For this reason try and is best regarded as a fixed idiom used only in its infinitive and imperative form.

“Try and” is grammatically poorly constructed, but it’s actually not quite synonymous with “try to.” The meanings of the two phrases are (likely not coincidentally) different in the same sense that the phrases themselves are different - “try and” is sort of informal and casual, while “try to” is a bit more formal and precise.

For instance - you and a friend are moving some boxes, some of which are heavy and/or awkward enough that it takes both of you to move them.

Regarding one box, you say, “I’m going to try and pick it up.” The implication then is merely that you’re going to check to see if it’s something you can carry by yourself.

If, on the other hand, you say, “I’m going to try to pick it up.” That carries more of an implication that you’re going to make a concerted effort - not just that you’re going to check quickly if it’s feasible, but that you’ve established it as a goal toward which you intend to invest effort.

You can read about this curious turn of phrase on the Yale Grammatic Diversity project.

just cuz it aint standard grammar doesnt mean it dont make no sense. Grammatical construction and parsability are independent; while grammar is intended to make language easier to parse, it often fails in that. Don’t get ‘em twisted.

but it doesn’t make any sense

It’s a contraction of two thoughts:

1. Try

2. Do it like this

Try to

Is telling someone a different way might help.

There’s differences but in spoken language we don’t pick words consciously all the time. So don’t dwell on the minute differences