Thursday, 18 August 2011

Grammatical confusion

Upon a discussion in the class this morning, I have asked a question about how difference between "try + -ing" and "try + to + infinitive" is. Finally, I have found some information about the question which may be beneficial for further understanding in using this verb phrase.

Try + -ing = to attempt to solve a problem by doing something.
Try + to + infinitive = to attempt and fail to do something.

Compare:
I tried turning the tap but the water still poured out. (I managed to turn the tap)
I tried to turn the tap but it was too old and rusty. (I couldn't turn the tap)

To sum up, It has a slightly different sense in using.
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References
Pauline Cullen (2007). Common mistakes at IELTS Intermediate and how to avoid them. Cambridge University Press.
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6 comments:

  1. Naya S.19 August 2011 at 00:41

    P'Sun,

    Can we use try+to v.inf. if we don't fail to do that thing? For example, I try to study more. (I havn't fail yet but I kep trying.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter.AUA19 August 2011 at 01:27

    Sun,
    Thank you for following this up and posting your results. I think it's great if you use this blog to extend discussions or otherwise follow up issues that arise in class.

    On the grammar point, your examples are excellent. As usual, a concrete example or two makes an abstract and confusing idea much clearer.

    Naya's follow up question is also a good one. Any takers? Perhaps another pair of examples?

    ReplyDelete
  3. sun19 August 2011 at 01:29

    Naya,

    I don't know!

    ReplyDelete
  4. sun19 August 2011 at 01:44

    Sorry for my former reply. It doesn't seem to be an academic answer.
    In my opinion, "I'm trying to study more", "I try to study more", and " I will try to study more" do not demonstrate a sense of failure towards a subject's action. What I really mean is that a failure in doing something occurs when an action passes and perhaps a writer should also give more details about it. "tried to do something" which is a past tense tends to contain a sense of failure (you can see from my above-mentioned examples). According to the three sentences i have addressed, an action still continues, even in a present simple tense; therefore, we cannot conclude whether failure has taken place or not.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tang21 August 2011 at 00:50

    Wow!!! This is really useful! Thank you very much!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Golf22 August 2011 at 16:48

    I'm with nong Tang
    It's a useful post!

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete

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