the.com/split infinitive
Putting a word between 'to' and the verb, which only pedants ever truly cared about.
means A construction where an adverb slips between 'to' and its verb, as in 'to boldly go' — grammatically harmless, despite the fuss.
from The phrase dates to 19th-century grammar debates, when scholars tried to force English into the mold of Latin, a language where the infinitive is a single unbreakable word (like 'ire', 'to go') and literally cannot be split. English infinitives are two words ('to' plus the verb), so inserting an adverb between them was declared a violation of a rule that was really Latin's, not English's. The term 'split infinitive' itself emerged from this 19th-century prescriptivist crusade, and the rule was never based on how English actually works — which is why 'to boldly go' survived the pedants just fine.
- famous example
- to boldly go, splits 'to go' with 'boldly'
- origin of rule
- 19th-century grammarians imitating Latin, which can't split
- grammatical status
- never actually wrong in English, just gossiped about
- modern usage
- widely embraced by writers who like rhythm over rules