Here's a comment I got from tulius agrippa. “You keep splitting infinitives. Are you
really the right person to teach us English?” oh my god! did I?
I feel so bad about it. I failed you. I will now have to do the honorable thing
and shut down my youtube channel. Goodbye everybody. Stay mellow.
In life some people believe in things that don't exist. The Loch Ness monster, a correlation
between the position of the planets when we were born and our personalities. Cool looking backpacks
and the English grammar rule to never split an infinitive. So what is a split infinitive?
Take a verb like TO GO take an adverb like BOLDLY. What is the argument? The TO and the verb must go
together. Never put a word or words between them. Never, never. Listen everybody you must remember
to always avoid splitting an infinitive. So you should say, they argue, “to go boldly” or
“boldly to go” never “to boldly go” they argue that you should say “to decide quickly” not “to
quickly decide” “to understand fully” and not “to fully understand.” The most famous example of a
split infinitive is in the opening sequence of the science fiction show Star Trek “to boldly go where
no man has gone before.” Now is it improved by saying “to go boldly when no man has gone before”?
No sounds worse. The so-called rule was invented somewhere around the turn of the 19th century some
grammarians at the time were comparing English to Latin and they wanted English to carry the same
purity as Latin so they tried to impose the rules of Latin grammar onto English.
The trouble is English isn't Latin. In latin you can't split an infinitive because it's only one
word and before then, before that time there was no mention of the split infinitive. Sometimes,
for reasons of style, you may wish to not split an infinitive for example; “I want you
to go quietly” not “I want you to quietly go.” you may prefer the style of the former phrase
and so do I in this case but there is no grammar rule against it. You have to go with your ear and
what sounds best in each case. Here are some common split infinitives can you can you make
them sound better by unsplitting them? “it's important to really understand this subject.”
“It's important really to understand this subject.”? I don't think so “I'd like to
warmly welcome everybody out there.” “I'd like to welcome warmly everybody out there.”?
No. “sales are expected to more than double in the next six months.” No idea,
you try. Good luck with that. I think you'll agree that the split infinitive version
sounds more natural. What about this “users were told regularly to check their phones for updates”
or “users were told to regularly check their phones for updates.” Artificially
trying to avoid a split infinitive can lead to confusion. in the first sentence
were the users told regularly or did they ask the user to make regular checks?
We just don't know it's ambiguous. The sentence with the split infinitive is a lot clearer. If you
still have your doubts let me quote the great Steven Pinker on this in this excellent book
“there is not the slightest reason to interdict an adverb from the position before the main
verb and great writers in English have placed it there for centuries.'' There is no rule
in spoken English, no rule in written English, no rule in formal English of any kind against using
the split infinitive. Fortunately good writers have ignored this non-existent rule.
Shall I just name a few of them well Shakespeare albeit only once, Jane Austen,
Abraham Lincoln the King James bible Samuel Pepys. It's a long list. Do you want a few
examples of split infinitives from great writers? I get these from another great book
Oliver Kamm. link in the description Jerome K Jerome “one never has time to really think.”
Samuel Johnson “Milton was too busy to much miss his wife.” Mark Twain “the commission's
scheme to arbitrarily and permanently confine the channel.” and let me finish with a quote from the
great American crime writer Raymond Chandler. He had sent his manuscript to the publisher
and the editor overzealously corrected it. Chandler was furious and he said
“when I split an infinitive god damn it I split it so it will remain split!” Well I
just want to quickly thank you for watching that video. I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time.