Tratar y Intentar

Question

Are these two verbs interchangable? For example if I were to say

Estoy tratando de ayudarla.

or

Trataste de terminar el trabajo antes manaña.

Can intentar also be used? Could someone give an example in which the verbs have a specific and different meaning if they are not interchangeble in all cases?

Thanks

Gotta have "de" after tratar for try. Estoy tratando de ayudarla. - jeezzle, Mar 26, 2010

Answer 1

In this sentence, 'trata de' is 'deals with'. Trata de todo lo que es computadoras. I may be wrong, but I don't think 'intenta de' would work here. At least I've not heard 'intentar' used this way.

Answer 2

They are interchangable but pay attention to this:

Estoy tratando de ayudarla = Estoy intentando ayudarla

Trataste de terminar el trabajo antes de mañana ? = Intentaste terminar el trabajo antes de mañana?

"de" is not used in the second case