One of the most well-known examples of split infinitives is "to boldly go where no man has gone before." I recently encountered what appeared to be a split infinitive in a book on linguistics, "to syntactically represent . . ." Are there times when it is okay to split an infinitive?
2007-03-18 09:27:58 · 2 answers · asked by sokrates 4 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
The notion that we shouldn't split an infinitive was proposed around 1850 by grammarians who wanted to follow the usage of Latin. Before that time, no-one was concerned about it.
Nowadays those ideas are being abandoned and there is nothing wrong with "to boldy go" or "to go boldly".
2007-03-18 09:34:46 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
English grammar permits us to split infinitives whenever we please. But that does not mean it is a good idea. I would say that if an infinitive is being split through laziness then it is not a good thing, the parts of what is after all a single unit should be kept together unless there is a very good reason not to. But if you have a good reason to split the infinitive which outweighs the advantages of keeping it together then okay, go ahead.
2007-03-18 10:10:55 · answer #2 · answered by CanProf 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋