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A split infinitive is a grammatical construction specific to English in which an adverb or adverbial phrase separates the "to" and "infinitive" constituents of what was traditionally called the "full infinitive", but is more commonly known in modern linguistics as the to-infinitive (e.g., to go).
1 why it is generally not acceptable to 'split' an infinitive with 'not' 2 falsity. 3 Problems. ... 9 Split infinitives in other languages? 3 comments. 10 Request for ...
Split infinitives are to be avoided when Latin infinitives are translated into English. ... Split infinitives are absolutely never acceptable as any grammarian would ...
In some cases it may be preferable to split an infinitive. [11] [13] In his grammar book A Plea for the Queen's English (1864), Henry Alford claimed that because "to" was part of the infinitive, the parts were inseparable. [14] This was in line with a 19th-century movement among grammarians to transfer Latin rules to the English language.
There are also infinitives corresponding to other aspects: (to) have written, (to) be writing, (to) have been writing. The second-person imperative is identical to the (basic) infinitive; other imperative forms may be made with let (let us go, or let's go; let them eat cake).
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The split infinitive "to boldly go" has also been the subject of jokes regarding its grammatical correctness. British humorist and science-fiction author Douglas Adams describes, in his series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , the long-lost heroic age of the Galactic Empire, when bold adventurers dared "to boldly split infinitives that no ...
But today it is widely recognized that it's no sin to begin a sentence with a conjunction or to now and then split an infinitive, and that a preposition is an acceptable thing to end a sentence with – despite what Miss Snodgrass told us in the seventh grade.