Public Service Announcement

I'm no grammatical genius or anything but this has to stop.

"Try and" is not equivalent to "try to" when placed in front of a verb, people! In fact, it's just plain wrong.

For example:

Incorrect
Sawyer and Juliet protest that they should try and warn Jack and the others about what happens so they don’t get in the chopper, which Sawyer and Juliet...

Correct
Sawyer and Juliet protest that they should try to warn Jack and the others about what happens so they don’t get in the chopper, which Sawyer and Juliet...

"Try and warn Jack" literally means that you tried Jack and you warned Jack. I'm not saying trying Jack isn't possible but I don't think that was the intended meaning. "To warn" is an infinitive and I think it was meant to stay that way.

I know people, including myself, say "try an'" in conversation but we've got to be smarter when writing. I've been seeing this shit all over the place lately - from educated people, writers who should know better - and it's driving me nuts.

If you'd like to learn a little more of the history behind "try and" here's a short discussion of it's origins, just for shits and giggles.