Grammar Moses: Why you can't have a first annual anything

Brian Lichtenberger of Wheeling writes that he often sees or hears this construction: "I try and find bargains at the store."

"I believe it would be the improper use of an infinitive as an adverb," he writes.

He notes that "try to find bargains" describes a single action, while "try and find bargains" suggests two actions - trying and finding.

My way of thinking is that "and" in this case is a simple conjunction, but nonetheless, Brian's theory on "try and" conveying two actions has merit.

If I "try and succeed," is it assumed that I succeeded or that I merely tried to do so. It certainly is ambiguous. But if I say I "try to succeed," I am merely conveying my intention to prevail. If I achieved the desired result, I'd say I "tried and succeeded."

Grammar guru Bryan A. Garner notes that "try and" is the standard idiom in British English, whilst a mere casualism here.

Call me a pedant, but even if it is common in the States, I don't advocate using "try and" when there is the potential to be ambiguous.

The bestest

Amy Goodman of downstate Petersburg wonders whether I've ever written on comparatives and superlatives.

No time like the present, Amy.

"I am annoyed by hearing about someone's oldest son when only two offspring are involved," she writes.

When comparing one child to one other child, one is older than the other. If this person had a third or fourth child, then you would say the first child is the oldest of the three or four. The difference is that when you are comparing more than two things you use the superlative form of the word.

So, why would you put your best foot forward if, presumably, you have only two?

Idioms, as I've written before, often make little sense when you pick them apart.

Verses or versus?

Amy had a gripe about another slip of the tongue that I don't think I've ever encountered.

"I am hearing 'versing' as a verb, I guess, as in 'We are versing a championship team tonight' or 'We versed a team that we had never played against before now.'"

Yikes. All I can surmise from the context is that someone decided "versus" is a plural form of "verse."

It is not. "Versus" is Latin for "turned so as to face."

So, Bears versus Packers, Trump versus Carson, Spy versus Spy, Kramer versus Kramer.

Gripes from the staff

I'm not the only one around here who twitches at the sight or sound of lousy grammar.

Deputy City Editor Chuck Keeshan passed along a news release that read: "For the second annual year ..."

I don't think that gaffe requires any elucidation, but it reminds of another "annual" problem.

I often see news releases proclaiming something as the "first annual" thing.

That's just wishful thinking. For something to be "annual" it has to have survived its first year. "Annual" suggests that it occurs yearly, and it can't have done that on the first attempt.

So, it can be the first Farmstead Lane Halloween Flippy Cup Garage Party Extravaganza or the second annual Farmstead Lane Halloween Flippy Cup Garage Party Extravaganza if you're silly enough to do it for a second consecutive year. But it can't be a "first annual ..."

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is assistant vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.