I will try and explain my latest grammar gripe

[skygazer]

Which is the phrase "try and..."

This drives me nuts. Not so much in day-to-day usage but I'm seeing and hearing it more and more in the media. I saw it used just today in a newspaper article and heard it several times on the radio news.

It's sloppy. "And" indicates more than one thing. So when you say you'll "try and" do something, you're saying you'll try to do it AND you will also do it.

Well, which is it? If you try, you may not do. But you're saying you'll try AND you'll do.

Proper usage of course would be, "I will try to explain my latest grammar gripe."

Naturally, there are those who feel proper grammar is boring and unnecessary. And as I said, in everyday conversation, it doesn't bother me that much. But it does really bug me that so-called journalists and writers are getting so sloppy.




Next week: my discussion of "where are you at?"

:P

[RebelOne]

1. I can agree with you. I am a copy editor and my job

is correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation in magazine articles. Another grammar boo-boo I cannot stand is the use of proven as a verb. It is an adjective. It is not a fact that is proven. It is a proven fact.

[Ineeda]

2. another one: "would of..." instead of "would have..." n/t

[ipfilter]

3. "is because" drives me bananas.

"The reason why the grass is wet is because it rained last night".

I'm not a grammar expert but this sounds like a double dose of passive voice. My English Comp teacher would have boiled over if I used something like that.

[TommyO]

14. Not being the grammar police, I'm not 100% sure it's wrong

though I would rephrase it as, "It rained last night, now the grass is wet".

[WinkyDink]

16. "The grass is wet because...." Wordiness was the problem.

[TommyO]

17. Bingo!

Thank you, grammar police.

[valerief]

18. Run-on sentence. nt

[TommyO]

34. I see it now, my brain was fried earlier from staring at too many Excel spreadsheets.

[valerief]

38. I understand only too well! nt

[SoCalDem]

22. or "The grass is wet because it rained last night"

:)

[ZombieHorde]

28. "It" reffers to the previous noun, so in your sentence, the grass rained. nt

[ZombieHorde]

27. I would not be allowed to use that sentence in school because of the use of the word, "it."

I had a writing professor who did not like us to use the words "it" or "that" in our papers. We could use those words, but the sentences with those words would be examined extra carefully.

I may try; "Since the weather was rainy last night, the grass is now wet."

I couldn't use many of the sentences I use on DU in school.

[MorningGlow]

4. Guhhh I'm with you on that one

"Try and" is verboten in our household, and I'm always pleased when I hear my son automatically say "try to". I'm reading him the Harry Potter books and I change "try and" in the text to "try to" when I read it aloud.
:rofl:

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. LOL! I clicked on this thread to nail you for saying "try and" in a grammar bitch.

Crap! You neat me to it!

:rofl:

[Dr. Strange]

9. Yes, you've been neaten.

:hide:

[SoCalDem]

24. are you a knight who says "NEEE"

[Bertha Venation]

6. Mrs. V. has noted that there are no longer any copy editors.

She finds an example of this nearly every day in the newspaper or on the TV news. It's disheartening. And mildly disgusting.

[Rosie1223]

7. Man, I had my snarky reply all set!

It's "Try to" not "Try and"!

:hi:

[HamdenRice]

8. It's a substitution for the correct, "try to" nt

[lildreamer316]

10. "Where are you at?" Right behind that preposition! LOL

Fun fun fun! :)

[femmocrat]

31. "Where are you AT?" is perfectly good Pittsburghese.

Except one would say, "Where y'at?"

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. Do or not do. There is no 'try.'

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. You sure did take a good stab at it.

I will try to learn from this.

[busybl]

13. When I saw your title I thought, but, but

[Zomby Woof]

15. "very unique"

It's becoming popular these days. :nuke:

[SoCalDem]

25. and the one that drives me insane "We will effort to find the video clip"

I have heard at least three "newspeople" say this :grr:

[Zomby Woof]

26. Arrrrrrrgh!

Making nouns into verbs like that drives me nuts. Doing this to "gift" was real popular in the 90's. "I am going to gift you these swine flu shots." :argh:

[valerief]

19. I can't stand hearing bobbleheads start sentences with, "Look."

I've heard it more and more over the past year.

"Look, you've got to understand that..."

"You've got to understand" sucks, too.

[frogmarch]

20. That's always been a big grammar gripe

of mine too. I don't know why, since many in my husband's family say "yous" when addressing more than one person. Eek.

[SoCalDem]

21. don't forget.. "I seen"..as in "I seen it with my OWN eyes"

which makes one ask also...whose eyes might you have used:rofl:

[TommyO]

37. Let's compound the damage

I myself seen...

While "I myself" may not be a grievous grammatical sin, it just sounds wrong.

[Swede]

23. .........

[madinmaryland]

29. PSA -- "Irregardless" is NOT a word. The correct word is "regardless"

Drives me crazy!

[femmocrat]

30. I am hearing more and more of this one:

My husband, he....
The woman, she.....

Is that a double subject? It drives me crazy.

Also the use of "that" for people, e.g., "The students that were absent....". It should be "who" were absent.

[GCP]

32. The misuse of 'whom'

So many people get this wrong.

[madamesilverspurs]

33. Uh huh.

Dad used to deprive us of dessert if we screwed up and split an infinitive in the course of our dinner conversation. Your allowance would take a hit if you ended a sentence with a preposition. Dad was famous for correcting the grammar of anyone, anywhere, any time; he figured that public humiliation was a legitimate teaching tool. We survived to adulthood only because he couldn't see the punctuation in oral communication. And he always wondered why we never wrote letters home.

---

[nolabear]

35. Honey, you mess wit "Where y'at" and you'll have New Orleans on your butt!

It's not a question; it's a way of life.

[nolabear]

36. Next up, "A myriad of."

The way to remember correct usage is that "myriad" means "ten thousand" and though it is now used as a general designation of a large number, it should be used the same way. "There are myriad ways to say Glenn Beck is a fool."

Don't know why it sticks in my craw so much except that I think its a pretty word.

[TommyO]

39. What a wonderful way to use "myriad" in a full sentence.