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Split Infinitive
Splitsville
By Evan Jenkins
Splitting an infinitive is not a mortal sin,
but it's nice to avoid because it makes some grammarians and other thoughtful
readers — the legions those grammarians taught — grind their teeth.
When it's easy to fix, we should fix it. It was easy here: "Mr. Lindsey
has said he never asked the bank to not file the disclosure form." Correctness
aside, isn't "not to file" much more natural? But there are times
when we should let the infinitive fanatics grin and bear it. The writer said
a business executive "pushed a button to officially activate the assembly
lines at the $212 million plant recently." There are alternatives, but
"officially" sounds fine where it is, right in the middle of that
infinitive.
CJR
