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  • Hi there, my name is Emma and in today's lesson we're going to look at the difference between

  • "try to do" and "try doing". We're going to look at other verbs other than "do" and "doing",

  • but we're looking at the difference between the gerund form of "try" and the infinitive

  • form of "try". So let's get started.

  • Okay, so first let's look at what's known as the infinitive. What do I mean by infinitive?

  • Well, I'm talking about when we have two verbs, so we have verb one which is "try" and we

  • have a second verb, so here's verb two, okay? So two verbs in the sentence and they're connected

  • with the preposition "to". Okay? So for example: "I tried to eat healthy." Okay? We're going

  • to compare this to: "try" + verb, and the verb ends with "-ing". This is called a gerund.

  • Okay, so again we have two verbs, verb one is "try" and we have a second verb which is

  • "verb + ing". So for example: "I tried eating healthy." All right, so what is the difference?

  • What is the difference between "try to" and "try verb + ing"? Well let's get started with

  • "try to". Okay, when we "try to do" something it means we make a very big effort, we attempt

  • to do something that's very difficult. So we're not doing something that's easy, we're

  • doing something that's hard; we're trying to do it. And often times, even though we

  • try our best, we often fail, meaning we don't do what we want to do. We try hard, but we

  • don't do it. So let's look at some examples of this.

  • Okay, example number one: "Maria tried to climb Mt. Everest." Well first of all, notice

  • we have verb one, we have "to", and then we have verb two. Okay? So it's the infinitive

  • form after "try". Now is Mount Everest something easy to climb? Is it an easy mountain, can

  • anyone do it? No. It's something difficult, so that's our first clue. Our second clue

  • is that Maria, she tried her best, okay? Maria tried to climb Mount Everest. This sentence

  • indicates she probably failed, meaning she probably wasn't successful. She tried her

  • best, but she probably didn't climb Mount Everest.

  • Let's look at another example. "I tried" -- so here we have verb one again - "to" -- verb

  • two - "watch" -- this is a really scary movie - "Paranormal Activity." I don't know if you've

  • heard of it. So I tried to watch Paranormal Activity, but the whole time I had my eyes

  • like this because it was too scary! So I tried to watch it, but it was too scary. So for

  • me, this is something difficult. Watching this movie is very difficult because I jumped

  • a lot, I just couldn't watch this movie; it was just so scary. So for me, it was difficult.

  • I tried to do it, I attempted this difficult action. Was I successful? No, the whole time

  • my eyes were covered. So I don't know what happens. I heard a lot of screaming. I can

  • imagine it was very bad... very scary movie.

  • Okay, our third example: "Deepak tried to study, but he was too tired." Okay? So for

  • Deepak, studying is a very difficult thing to do. Why is it so difficult? Because he's

  • tired. I don't know if you've ever tried to study when you're really tired, but it's not

  • easy. You look at the paper, you can barely see things, you read the same sentence again

  • and again and again. So for Deepak, he tried to study, it was too difficult. So again,

  • difficult action, he tried his best, he probably failed. I don't know about the test, but he

  • failed his attempt at studying. Okay? Now let's compare this to "try verb + ing". So

  • what does "try verb + ing" mean? And so we can put any verb we want here. Well it means

  • we're doing some sort of experiment. By experiment I don't mean you're a scientist and you're

  • in a lab doing an experiment. I mean you're doing something you haven't done before, so

  • something new. It's something that's not really difficult. Here we had all these difficult

  • things we were doing. Here what you're trying, it's not difficult. You try something, but

  • you don't know what's going to happen. Okay? So the outcome... you don't know what will

  • happen and you want to see what will happen so in this way it's an experiment. So let's

  • look at some examples.

  • Someone might tell you, "Try", so here we have verb one, "adding", we have our "ing".

  • "Add" is verb two. "Try adding salt to your potatoes." Okay? So again, this isn't something

  • hard to do; you just need the salt shaker, you go like this, there, unless there's a

  • salt shortage. So that's very simple to do, so not difficult but we don't know what's

  • going to happen. Maybe if you add the salt you're going to eat it and there's going to

  • be too much salt, maybe there's not going to be enough salt, maybe you're going to love

  • how it tastes, maybe you're going to hate how it tastes. What happens is somewhat unknown.

  • You can guess what's going to happen. You'll also notice it's giving advice. "Oh, try adding

  • salt to your potatoes. Try doing this. Try doing that." We often use "try doing" when

  • we want to give advice to someone because they have some sort of problem. So if I said

  • to someone, "Try adding salt to your potatoes", maybe they told me before their potatoes are

  • bland; they don't taste good.

  • Okay, let's look at another sentence. "If you can't reach me by email, try calling me."

  • So again we have... in this section we have our first verb, "try", verb 2, "call", and

  • "ing". Okay? So: "If you can't reach me by email, try calling me." So again, this isn't

  • difficult to do. Picking up a phone and calling, it's not difficult, it's not like climbing

  • Mount Everest or watching Paranormal Activity. But the thing is you're not exactly sure of

  • what will happen. You can assume the person you're trying to call will probably pick up,

  • but it's not 100% guaranteed. Okay? So again this is experiment, you try to do something

  • but you're not exactly sure what will be the outcome, what will happen. Okay so now we're

  • going to look at both "try" plus the infinitive, "try" and the gerund, and we're going to do

  • a quiz together.

  • Okay, so let's do this together. Our first question:

  • "If you want to become a better English speaker, try _______ English whenever you can."

  • Do you think this is "try speaking English" or "try to speak English"? What do you think?

  • Well, this would be "try speaking English". Now why did I put "speaking"? Well, number

  • one, this is almost like an experiment. You can guess what the outcome will be, you want

  • to see what will happen if you speak English. Will your English improve, is that going to

  • be the outcome? The second thing is, again, when we use "try + ing" this is often advice.

  • Somebody is telling you advice to help you out. "Try speaking English whenever you can,

  • that will help you get better at the language."

  • Let's try number two: "I tried _______ my driving test, but I failed."

  • Do you think "I tried to pass my driving test" or "I tried passing"? Okay, well this is our

  • clue: "failed", so clearly this was too hard, too difficult.

  • Sorry, oops. "I tried to pass".

  • Okay. Let's look at number three: "If your girlfriend is angry at you," -- maybe

  • you forgot her birthday - "try _______ her flowers."

  • Do you think this should be "try to give her flowers" or "try giving her flowers"? If you

  • said, "Try giving her flowers", you're correct. This is again like an experiment. We don't

  • know exactly what's going to happen. It's easy to do, to buy flowers. We don't know

  • what's going to happen, but maybe she'll be happy with you; maybe she'll forgive you for

  • forgetting her birthday. And again, "try giving her flowers", this is a piece of advice. -"What

  • should I do?" -"Well, try doing this." Okay?

  • So if you want to become a better English speaker, I invite you to check out our website

  • at www.engvid.com. There you will find a quiz where you can look at the difference between

  • "try to do" and "try doing". So try doing our quiz on the site and until next time, take care.

  • Learn English for free www.engvid.com

Hi there, my name is Emma and in today's lesson we're going to look at the difference between

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A2 difficult ing salt infinitive everest mount everest

English Grammar - "try to do" or "try doing"?

  • 36 1
    Zenn posted on 2013/05/09
Video vocabulary

Keywords

difficult

US /ˈdɪfɪˌkʌlt, -kəlt/

UK /'dɪfɪkəlt/

  • adjective
  • Hard; not easy; you need to work hard to do it
  • Not easy; requiring effort or skill to accomplish, understand, or deal with.
  • Not easy to please or satisfy; causing trouble or problems.
  • Full of hardships or problems; causing distress or worry.
salt

US /sɔlt/

UK /sɔ:lt/

  • noun
  • Natural white crystal used to flavor food
  • verb
  • To add salt to food in order to improve its taste
  • To add salt to ice in order to melt it
  • To preserve food by adding salt
  • adjective
  • Being preserved or seasoned with salt
sentence

US /ˈsɛntəns/

UK /'sentəns/

  • noun
  • Official punishment given by a court of law
  • Set of words that make a whole statement
  • verb
  • (Of a judge) to decide the punishment of
easy

US /ˈizi/

UK /ˈi:zi/

  • adjective
  • Not hard to do; not difficult
movie

US /ˈmuvi/

UK /ˈmu:vi/

  • noun
  • Motion picture; film
  • A film or video.
  • The business of making films.
  • A cinema or movie theater.
  • adjective
  • Resembling a movie; cinematic.
tired

US /ˈtaɪərd/

UK /ˈtaɪəd/

  • adjective
  • Without energy so you want to rest or fall asleep
  • verb
  • To lose, cause to lose energy so you want to rest
give

US /ɡɪv/

UK /ɡɪv/

  • other
  • To administer something, such as medicine
  • To allow someone to have something
  • To produce offspring
  • To cause someone to experience something
  • To provide instructions or guidance
  • To donate something, especially money
  • To provide as an instance
  • To hold or host
  • To perform an action
  • To present something voluntarily to someone
  • To provide something needed or wanted
  • To utter or emit something
  • noun
  • Degree of flexibility in something, a material
  • verb
  • To hand over or present something to someone
  • To cause someone to have or experience something
  • other
  • To collapse or break
  • To collapse or break under pressure
speak

US /spik/

UK /spi:k/

  • verb
  • To be able to use a certain language
  • To use words to tell information, express thoughts
watch

US /wɑtʃ/

UK /wɒtʃ/

  • verb
  • To keep in check, manage, or control something
  • To look at something for entertainment, e.g. TV
  • To guard a place or people; protect child, etc.
  • To look at carefully to work out what is happening
  • To protect and care for someone or something
  • noun
  • Period of time someone is responsible for guarding
  • Device you wear on your wrist that shows the time
  • Official warning statement, e.g. of bad weather
number

US /ˈnʌmbɚ/

UK /ˈnʌmbə(r)/

  • noun
  • Symbols such as 1, 2, 56, 793
  • Particular song or dance performed during a show
  • Total quantity or amount of things
  • verb
  • To put numbers on things
  • To assign a sequence within a group, series, set
  • To claim to be part of a larger group, series, set