Please correct the given sentences!

Question

Which is more accurate and why? Please read the sentences given below and let me know which is more correct.

1. I was cold so i tried lighting the fire,but i still couldn't get warm.

2.I was so cold so i tried to light the fire,but i still couldn't get warm.

I am confuse. Thank you for your explanation.

Kiran

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Anonymous1. I was cold so i tried lighting the fire,but i still couldn't get warm.
2. I was so cold so i tried to light the fire,but i still couldn't get warm.

They're equally grammatical, but only the first makes sense semantically.

(Don't forget to capitalize the personal pronoun "I," by the way.)

"I tried lighting the fire [as a way of dealing with the cold]." We assume you succeeded in lighting the fire, although it's not exactly unambiguous.
To make your meaning clear, you need to point out that the fire did not help.

"I tried to light the fire, but . . . . "
This implies quite strongly that you failed to light the fire.
And unless you have the fire, "I still couldn't get warm" seems absurd.

I can't explain why the infinitive refers only to the fire and the gerund refers to the situation with the cold,
but that's clearly what my native instinct is telling me.

Somehow, if you say, "I tried lighting a fire,"
we have an even greater sense that the fire was lit but the attempt to get warm failed.

The difference is between trying to do something, and trying something as a remedy for something.
I'm cold! (reply) Try bundling up! This is quite different from, "Try to bundle up."

It's almost as if "try to X" were an idiom (make an attempt to X). Of course it's not.

Well, we have certain labels for categories of infinitives, eg, "infinitive of purpose."
I don't believe these apply to the corresponding gerunds.

If you say, "I'm trying to light the fire," "trying" is not a gerund, but part of the present continuous tense.
"To light" is still the infinitive as object of the verb.

Please correct the given sentences!

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