BBC LEARNING ENGLISH

English In A Minute
Try + -ing or to + verb
This is not a word-for-word transcript

James
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to English In A Minute. I'm James and today we're
going to look at the verb try.

It can be a little bit tricky to use this verb, because it changes its meaning
depending on whether you use an –ing verb or a verb with to. So, let's take a look
at some examples.

I tried baking a cake. I tried to bake a cake. These two sentences are almost
exactly the same but their meaning is a little bit different.

I tried baking a cake. When we use try with an –ing, all we're saying is that we
attempted to do something. It could be a new experience – something that you
haven't done before.

I tried to bake a cake. When we use try with a verb and to, we're saying that a
task is quite difficult to complete, or that we've failed.

If you'd like to try learning more English, why not go to our Facebook page, or to
the website? Bye, everyone.

English In A Minute ©British Broadcasting Corporation 2020

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