Go Ahead and Split! Grammar Tips from Prompt Proofing

    VANCOUVER, BC, August 02, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- You may have been taught, in high school or college, that you should never split infinitives - 'to boldly go where no man has gone before' may have become iconic but it is grammatically incorrect, no?

Well, no - not really. Granted, this particular phrase could be substituted by 'to go boldly where no man has gone before', a change that would satisfy the strictest of grammarians and would not significantly affect the meaning. However, it is arguable that the emphasis would be changed slightly.

In fact, there is no logical reason to avoid splitting infinitives in English. The practice is a hangover from Latin sentence construction that is arguably irrelevant in twenty-first century English. Additionally, avoiding a split infinitive can be both clumsy and result in a subtle change of meaning. Consider the following:

I'm inclined to privately agree with him.

To avoid splitting the infinitive this could become:

I'm inclined privately to agree with him.
OR
I'm inclined to agree with him privately.

The first sounds clumsy and the second changes the meaning, suggesting a private meeting to express agreement that was not expressed publicly.

Avoiding splitting infinitives may also shift the emphasis. Consider:

It's important to actually read documents before signing them.

Compared with:

It's actually important to read documents before signing them.

In the first sentence the stress is on reading the documents - as opposed to not reading them, in the second, the stress is on how important it is to read documents - a subtle, but significant, shift.

It is true that, in formal writing, split infinitives are still best avoided if possible. However, if doing so changes the meaning - or results in clumsy construction - go ahead and split!

About Prompt Proofing

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