Try + Gerund or Infinitive

• I tried sending her flowers.

Try + gerund

• I tried sending her flowers.

• Meaning: An experiment: I sent her flowers to see what will happen

Try + infinitive

• I tried to send her flowers.

• I tried to send her flowers.

• Meaning: I tried to go through the procedure necessary to send flowers to her. The procedure might have been difficult.

Try + gerund

• means “perform the action of VERB to find out if it will accomplish some other purpose”.

• I wanted to clear the smoke from the room, so I tried opening the door = I opened the door in order to clear the smoke from the room.

• The action of VERB is presumed to be accomplished.

• If the attempt succeeds, the purpose is accomplished: the smoke is cleared.

• If the attempt fails, the action is accomplished but the purpose is not: although the door is open, the smoke remains.

Try + infinitive

• means “attempt to accomplish the action of VERB”. The action is usually hard to do.

• I tried to open the door = I attempted to cause the door to become open. If the attempt succeeds, the action of VERB is accomplished: the door is open. If the attempt fails, the action is not accomplished: the door is still closed.