Try and do something

What's difference between "Try _and_ <do something>" and "Try _to_ <do something>" ?

"Try and do something" = "Try something and, then, do it." - quite strange.
"Try to do something" = "Make an attempt to do something"

Ex.: "Try to write this sentence correctly".

Where did you find the "Try and do..." sentence? I'd like to read it in the context.

Anton

Google gave me the following quote from the word court:
"She contends that to try and do something means to achieve the goal, and is therefore incorrect; but to try to do something doesn't predict success and is"

(www.theatlantic.com/issues/96jul/wordct/wordct.htm)

The full article is available only for the subscribers...

The following pagse is woth visiting:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?p=18190
http://www.columbiaseminary.edu/coffeetalk/021.html

They contain just what you are interested in.

Anton

People (especially children) often use "try and do" when they mean "try to do". Literally they mean different things as explained above but more often than not "try and do" isn't intended to be taken literally.

> Where did you find the "Try and do..." sentence? I'd like to read it in the context.

I cannot remember seeing it written, just heard alot from people around.
Thaks for the links.

So is this a correct sentence or not?

It's correct enough if that what you mean. You can try something. You can do something. If you do both, you could say "try and do something". That's the literal meaning but (usually) it would be a bit of an odd thing if that what you meant. If you actually mean "try to do something", then it wouldn't be correct because this has a different meaning. Usually when you hear "try and do" what's really meant is "try to do", so it's usually incorrect (literally speaking).

Hmm, I've seen this particular collocation so many times in various books that I can't believe it's incorrect;-( I mean, come on, it's so common.

You're right Maggie! "Try and ..." is simply an idiom. As an idiom it means the same as "try to ...".

Well I just read this:
http://www.columbiaseminary.edu/coffeetalk/021.html

Judging from his exaggerated "I was assaulted by two phrases which always make me wince.", this person got his knickers in a knot over it, probably because the emails he describes are spam. But pedants love to overanalyse the nooks and crannies of English, to find fault with popular usage.