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There was a scene a thirty-something wife refuses to go looking for the wedding ring her husband lost in a courtyard when she was asked by her husband over the phone, in the fiction titled “The Lost Order” appearing in New Yorker magazine (January 7).

“I think I lost it when I was in the courtyard with Monkey [their pet dog]. I’m sorry to put this on you, but would you mind taking a look around for it?” - - -

“I’m not going to go look for it,”

I find myself saying into the phone. It’s not really a decision, it’s more like discovery.”

I noticed that there is no ‘to’ or ‘and’ used in “I’m not going to go look for it.”

Is it customary or grammatical not to bring ‘to+inf’ or 'and' after ‘go.’ Is it customary to say “go play baseball,” “go see movie” “go buy pumpkin” “go swim to the pool” or "go help someone."?

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    'Go play baseball' would be far more common than 'go play cricket'. In the UK, go catenates quite often with the to-infinitive, but more often with the 'and-infinitive': we have decided to go and play cricket on Thursday. In the US, go see a movie, go buy a pumpkin and go swim in the pool would be very common. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 9 '13 at 22:27
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    Yes, this is quite customary. In fact, it sounds awkward to say something like "I'm going to go to swim at the pool". It's a little bit better with "and" ("I'm going to go and swim at the pool"), but it sounds vastly more natural to leave out both. (And if you want to sound even closer to a native speaker, you pronounce "going to" as "gonna", so there's not even a "to" there.) – Marthaª Jan 9 '13 at 22:31
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    Yoichi, would you care to add an "american-english" or "british-english" tag, or even both, to indicate the point of view which should be addressed in any answer? There is a distinct transatlantic difference. – Andrew Leach♦ Jan 9 '13 at 22:33
  • possible duplicate of Should I always insert "and" between two verbs in imperative mode? – tchrist♦ Jan 9 '13 at 23:17
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    It's grammatical to say "I'm going to {go see a movie / go buy a pumpkin / go (swimming at / swim in) the pool / go help someone [CHOOSE ONE]". Most American native-speakers would add and after "go": "I'm going to {go and see a movie / go and buy a pumpkin go and help someone [CHOOSE ONE]". But I suspect that few would say "I'm going to go and swim in the pool". It's pleonastic to add "and" or "to", sounds terrible to me (unlike to most AmE speakers), & adds no value or meaning. But spoken English doesn't come with a style manual. – user21497 Jan 9 '13 at 23:17
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This form is common in American English. The equivalent in standard English is "go verb-ing" or "go and verb".

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  • I think you’ll find that the linked-to answers go into this in detail. – tchrist♦ Jan 9 '13 at 23:40

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