While most people have heard of the split infinitive, not everyone knows exactly what one is.
Let's start with the infinitive: The infinitive in English is defined as the base form of the verb or its unmarked form, such as be, do, are, jump, run, have or sit. Often the bare infinitive is introduced by the particle to, when it is referred to as the “full Infinitive”.
This base form is usually the same form as the first person singular present tense of the verb.
Such verbs as shout, run, walk, think, search, hunt, go, etc are all first person singular present tense, and the expressions to shout, to run, to walk, to think, to search, to hunt, to go, etc are known as full infinitives.
The Split Infinitive
What has become known as a split infinitive is when an adverb, adverbial phrase or some other construction is inserted between the to and the verb.
Examples of Split Infinitives
- to loudly shout
- to slowly run
- to quickly walk
- to carefully search
- to boldly go (Star Trek)
- to really live (Hemmingway)
It is difficult to find any modern authority who argues that infinitives should never be split. But there is still dispute between those who believe that the split infinitive should be avoided whenever this can be done without any sacrifice of clarity or naturalness, and those who believe that no effort at all should be made to avoid them.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language has this to say about the split infinitive:
"The split infinitive has been present in English ever since the 14th century, but it was not until the 19th century that grammarians labeled and condemned the usage. The only rationale for condemning the construction is based on a false analogy with Latin. The thinking is that because the Latin infinitive is a single word, the equivalent English construction should be treated as if it were a single unit. But English is not Latin, and distinguished writers have split infinitives without giving it a thought. Noteworthy splitters include John Donne, Daniel Defoe, George Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, William Wordsworth, and Willa Cather."
Fowler on the Split Infinitive
One of the most influential style manuals in English is A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H. W. Fowler. Fowler began his famous article on the split infinitive as follows:
"The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; and (5) those who know and distinguish.
Fowler went on to argue that though it was often better to avoid the split infinitive there were many occasions when to split it was worse than to leave the construction intact.Perhaps the best advice for the student is to simply put the adjective where it makes for the most clarity and reads the most naturally. If you do split an infinitive you will be in very good company and only the most pedantic of critics will disapprove.
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