SAT Prep - How to Quickly Repair a Split Infinitive

An infinitive is a verb form using the word to, as in to do or to go. Infinitives are often "split" by adding a word between to and the bare infinitive: "To boldly go where no man has gone before."

Split infinitives are quite common in speaking and informal writing, but are frowned upon in formal writing. I urge you to avoid splitting infinitives in your SAT essay. Why take chances?

How to repair a split infinitive? Move the adverb.

Not: "To boldly go."

But: "To go boldly."

Or: "Boldly to go."

Or simply remove the adverb: "To go."

Why is it wrong to split an infinitive? Because it often weakens, not strengthens, the verb.

To see the terrible damage that can be inflicted by splitting infinitives, let's look at two versions of "The Impossible Dream" (lyrics by Joe Darion).

Bad version, with split infinitives:

To frequently dream the impossible dream
To occasionally fight the unbeatable foe
To often bear with unbearable sorrow
To eagerly run where the brave dare not go
To consistently right the unrightable wrong
To unfailingly love pure and chaste from afar
To always try when your arms are too weary
To eventually reach the unreachable star

Good version:

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

Notice the difference? The second version is better, stronger, faster.

Bonus question: How would you fix the title of this article?

David Wisehart is a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter living in Southern California. He blogs as The Grammar Guy at http://www.grammar-guy.com/

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