Monthly Archives: December 2013

Late Nights and Tired Minds!

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My apologies for the error in today’s post “Try and Get This Right So We Can Try to Learn Something,” and thanks to the eagle eyes who caught it.15192913_s The error has been fixed so if you received the post by email, please go to the revised link. I will endeavor to draft posts earlier in the evening while my brain isn’t concentrating on how many hours of sleep it will get if we go to bed now!  Thanks, as always, for your support!

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Try and Get This Right So We Can Try to Learn Something!

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23459583_sA quick topic for today. The phrase “try and” is colloquial, meaning it is used more in informal conversation and is not used in formal writing. The correct term should be try to.

  • “Let’s try and get this car started” is OK if you’re talking to your buddy.
  • “Let’s try to get this report filed” is better if you are using business email or talking to someone at work.

Grammar Girl explained it well when she said if you use “try and” in a sentence like “I want to try and call Grammar Girl,” you are really doing two things–trying and calling. If you use “try to” in that same sentence–“I want to try to call Grammar Girl,”–you are using the preposition “to” to link the trying to the calling. (http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/a-few-short-questions)

This is really a simple thing that isn’t a “make it or break it” kind of thing, but is still important.

Do you have questions about whether or not something is correct or do you have examples of things you see over and over that you don’t think are right? Forward them on to me ([email protected]) and I’ll address them here.

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Grammar Giggles – Merry Chirstmas!

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Now that the stress of the holidays is nearly over, I can get back on track. My sister sent me this card she received in the mail. Not only did the printer not catch the error, but I assume someone paid money for these cards and sent them out to their friends and family so who knows how many of them are in circulation. All I can say is “Wow!”

Christmas card

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