Most of us were taught grammar in a very basic way—we can recognise nouns, verbs, adjectives and how to put them together in sentences. But we were forever in fear of splitting our infinitives even though most of us didn’t even know what it meant, let alone when we were doing it.
Even now, when I give talks on using words in business, I am surprised how mentioning the split infinitive seems to increase the tension in the room. We still fear this mysterious crime. But should we?
What is the infinitive?
Simply, an infinitive is the basic form of a verb. In English when we talk of a verb in its dictionary form we describe them:
- to go
- to walk
- to sing and so on …
This is the infinitive, that is, before it is given an inflexion such as, walked or walking.
If we want to intensify the verb by using an adverb we get:
- to go immediately
- to sing loudly
- to walk quickly, etc.
What is the split infinitive?
These infinitive forms of the verb with the adverb following are OK. However, the crime of splitting an infinitive is to put the adverb between the two components of the verb, thus:
- to immediately go
- to loudly sing
- to quickly walk, etc.
As a sci-fi nerd I must quote perhaps the most famous split infinitive in popular culture, which ends the mission statement of Star Trek’s Starfleet:
To explore strange new worlds
To seek out new life and new civilisations
To boldly go where no man has gone before
Is the split infinitive a crime?
A significant number of writers (probably most) think not! To boldly go is far more powerful than boldly to go or to go boldly and just sounds better.
Many writers believe that the split infinitive rule is an incorrect imposition of a Latin grammar rule onto English that takes most of its grammar from Germanic Anglo-Saxon roots.
Even H.W. Fowler, author of Modern English Usage (first published in 1926), and perhaps the greatest English language guru (in my opinion), suggests that it is:
… though not desirable in itself, is preferable to either of two things, to real ambiguity, & to patent artificiality.
So my advice is to boldly split your infinitives with no fear that you are going there alone.