Hi Debian folks,
Thanks tons for providing Debian. We are in your debt!
In case you'd like to tidy up a bit, I noticed a grammar error on
your site, on the http://www.debian.org/ports/ia64/ page, under "BIOS
Versions", as follows:
"It's possible that you may find an early ia64 machine that needs a
BIOS upgrade to work well with Linux. One particular combination
we've heard about is trying to run new kernels on "Lion" systems with
really old BIOS versions. To try and make this easier ..."
"Try and..." is broken grammar. (Just as "trying and run..." would
have been broken grammar.) It should be:
"It's possible that you may find an early ia64 machine that needs a
BIOS upgrade to work well with Linux. One particular combination
we've heard about is trying to run new kernels on "Lion" systems with
really old BIOS versions. To try to make this easier ..."
References below if you're interested.
Thanks tons and regards, Bruce
Bruce Campbell
15270 SW Holly Hill Road
Hillsboro, OR 97123-9074
Voice: 503-628-2936 (Pacific)
Email: <MailTo:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<http://www.AirplaneHome.com>www.AirplaneHome.com
The phrase "try and" is grammatically incorrect. It should be "try to".
The word "and" means in addition to, such as when describing multiple
separate items. There's a tendency for folks to use it as a
universal connecting or "filler" word, but such use is generally
grammatically incorrect. Specifics follow if you're interested.
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The word "and" is a conjunction which means "in addition to" or "plus
another separate item". The phrase "try and" usually causes an
illogical sentence structure because it indicates that a separate
item will follow, but instead the composition continues to focus on
the first item. In general "try" should be followed by the
preposition "to", which connects the verb "try" with the rest of the
phrase and is used to show purpose. ("And" is not a connective
preposition, but rather a conjunction which indicates another item in
a set of multiple separate items. When incorrectly used in place of
"to", an illogical and grammatically incorrect sentence results, as
any competent reference on the rules of English grammar will attest.)
The following is an example of the same fundamental grammar error in
a form which is more obvious to most folks:
Wrong: He's trying and improve his technical skills.
Right: He's trying to improve his technical skills.
Here are some references you can check:
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000253.htm
http://www.rdrop.com/~half/Creations/Writings/Rants/Rants-Grammar.html
(Fifth item.)
From http://www.chipspage.com/Wordprob.html:
try and [verb]:
Sometimes in casual speech people mistakenly say "try and" when they
mean "try to." It is faulty to say that "We all try and help our
neighbors in times of crisis." In grammatically correct writing,
"and" cannot replace the "to" in the infinitive verb form. Write
instead, "We all try to help our neighbors in times of crisis."
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