Writing Tips

try to definitely

Try to (Wake Fish up. She'll be no good tomorrow unless she starts the day with a hangover).

i would like to scotch any rumours of collapse ... i was merely lolling elegantly ... as for the question i have no idea ... but i think "try and " sounds nicer ... i am useless with grammar and punctuation but i came from that generation who had to learn a stupid phonetic way of reading called ITA ...

"Try and" is common usage but wrong. "Try to" is much better. "Try getting" would be my choice.

Well I think it depends on a little comma. Try, and.... is perfectly acceptable. Try to.... is also acceptable. The comma changes the meaning slightly but as my English teacher was always fond of telling me, and anyone else who would listen, the English language is a constantly developing medium and what is unacceptable today is acceptable tomorrow. As time passes what is 'correct' changes.

Agree with Missi - and in fact, "Try, and" is much more encouraging, since the implication is that by trying you will, whereas "Try to" has an implication that it might not come right. I find Bill Bryson's "Troublesome Words" very useful in this regard. If you have a printer, visit a newspaper's Style Guide and print it off. Just about every common problem with language will be in that Style Guide with an acceptable solution. English moves on and evolves. In Victorian times, arguments raged that reliable should actually be 'relionable' and laughable 'laugh-at-able'. A lot of terrible grammatical errors that were frowned on thirty years ago are now acceptable by grammar authorities. However, if you're putting work in front of me, 'h' is only a vowel for the purposes of 'an', in the words 'hour' 'heir' and 'honour' - if the 'h' is not silent, don't use 'an'. Everyone has their pet hates - some people get funny over stationery/stationary (!), and mine is 'an hotel'.

i HATE it when people pronounce *specifically* as *pacifically*

I tend to be more concerned when people misuse words than grammar, things like disinterested to mean uninterested and fulsome to mean lavish; a person's grasp of grammar has an awful lot to do with their age. Forty-somethings got a good background in it and take errors seriously, thirty-somethings got told an awful lot about nouns and pronouns but nothing about commas and apostrophes and twenty-somethings got told to just express themselves and not worry about the rules.

Thanks, I agree wth most of that. I think my main problem is with the spoken "try and" - maybe there's a comma in there, but suspect not..... I'm also sure that many words and phrases that I use today would have someone from 50 years ago tearing their hair out about. However, I was unfortunately subjected to a "team discussion" room at my work intranet (a bank), where I would be pulling my hair out at the grammar used by people - maybe the twenty-somethings mentioned who argued that "the meaning is obvious, why worry about punctuation". (I hope nobody here received any letters from these people about your accounts!) In response to that, someone posted a message containing two phrases, exactly alike, word for word, but with punctuation in different places. The result was that the two phrases meant the exact opposite of each other. I think the phrases were about man and woman relationships, but have forgotten. Does anyone know what I'm waffling about?

Yes, absolutely!

If you stop to think about writing too much, you'll never do any.

the use of 'h' in hotel etc is fairly recent (no, I don't mean 1980's) originally it was as the French, hence 'an 'otel' (not 'an horse', because I think that's anglo saxon) It was vulgar people trying to be posh who sounded the 'h'. However, I think now this is established, 'a hotel' should be fine. I want to comment on the try thing. It's a good question, andwhen I saw it, I thought , well, try and ...... sounds more natural as written, while try to is obviously correct in a full sentence. I think the answer is IMPERATIVE! so the comma does it. - it's probably really, (Try!) and (Get it better next time!) althouigh I know and shoudn't follow the punctuation stop. I guess the imperative is implied withoput the excalamation, as in protect and survive. stop and wait. watch and wait. there, by geoirge i gotit

I hate it when certain gentlemen of colour pronounce the word "Ask" as "Axe".

Well by all accounts, it's because punctuation can change meaning, that legal documents are devoid of it. I've no doubt that Andrew will correct me if this is not the case. Not being in any of the age groups mentioned above, but in fact from an earlier period in history, I have to say that I was taught to use 'an', for the silent 'h' reason Andrew alludes to above, preceding the following words. All of those mentioned by him plus 'history' and 'hotel'. I discussed this usage of the language with a friend who teaches English language in higher education, and was told it is almost always seen as quaint usage these days; not strictly unacceptable but nevertheless redolent of days of yore! I resist change at every opportunity being a very insecure and sensitive soul, so still use these forms. I've no doubt that at some time in the future I will be pointed at in the street by kids who laugh and say, 'Where goest thou forsooth?'