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I heard in an old British TV program (it was a funny sitcom, not an English teaching program) that it should be "To go boldly", due to some grammar rule about infinitives

Is it incorrect to say "To boldly go where no man has gone before"? What is the grammatical rule behind it if it is incorrect?

StoneyB on hiatus
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user13267
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    It was thought to be incorrect, and perhaps should still be avoided anyway, on the ground of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_infinitive. – Damkerng T. Jul 05 '15 at 11:57
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    http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/grammar/splitinf.html –  Jul 05 '15 at 12:35
  • It is literary or poetic style where grammar can be handled more freely. – rogermue Jul 05 '15 at 17:48
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    This question has the potential to severely upset those who want to authoritatively prescribe which grammatical constructions we have to obediently use ... – Hagen von Eitzen Jul 05 '15 at 19:40
  • I don't know why someone voted to reopen this. This is pretty clearly a duplicate. If you want to add a better answer (as we could certainly use one), then add it to the linked question that this is a duplicate of. – DCShannon Jul 06 '15 at 21:32
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    What? How is 'It is (merely) an attempt to avoid the bugbear of a "split infinitive", i.e. "to loyally endeavor".' an answer to this question? Besides, it's not even really correct; this construction increased in frequency dramatically after LeP's quote was written. –  Jul 07 '15 at 17:52
  • There are already 22 posts with the tag split infinitive. – rogermue Jul 08 '15 at 05:34

1 Answers1

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Short answer: No, it is not wrong. The rule in question is "don't split infinitives" (i.e. don't put other words between "to" and the verb itself, as in "to go"). But this is at best a controversial rule, and at worst a piece of nonsense that does not line up with real usage.

Long answer: ...actually, you know what? Everything I was going to write here is covered (better) in the Wikipedia article "Split infinitive", which I linked to above. It even uses the Star Trek "To boldly go" line in its lead! So if you want a longer answer, I recommend reading (or at least skimming) that article.

Tim Pederick
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