Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 17:22:36 -0500 (EST) From: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> To: Brooks Davis <brooks@one-eyed-alien.net> Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG, "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@blarg.net> Subject: Re: docs/36462: dev.handbook grammar nit "try and" Message-ID: <XFMail.20020329172236.jhb@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <20020329141149.A19933@Odin.AC.HMC.Edu>
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On 29-Mar-2002 Brooks Davis wrote: > On Fri, Mar 29, 2002 at 11:10:02AM -0800, Gary W. Swearingen wrote: >> Like I said, it's a "nit". One hears it often and so also sees it in >> e-mail, but it's in the same category as "ain't" -- much frowned upon by >> the grammarians, and seldom seen in professionally-editted text. My >> American Heritage Dictionary is nearly 30 years old, but 79% of their >> "Usage Panel" found an example containing "to try and force compliance" >> to be "unacceptable". > > My 1997 edition drops that to 65%. Personally I find "try and" to be wordy and "weak". If you did something, say you did it, don't dawdle around about trying to do it unless you say it as "I tried to force compliance". All IMHO of course. -- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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