what is the difference: I tried pushing the car vs. I tried to push the car

[Canerbilgin2003]

How can you explain your students the diffrerence between these two sentences?

I tried pushing the car.

I tried to push the car.

Thanks

[Pamela]

Hi canerbilgin,

I tried pushing the car.

You experimented with the action to see if it worked. Imagine, your car didn't start(maybe, something went wrong with your car accumulator, or there were some other problems).You tried pushing the car.


I tried to push the car

You made up your mind to push the car, that is, you chose this sort of action. The action may be beyond your depth( difficult) to perform.

[Canerbilgin2003]

Thanks