ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Playlist Common Grammar Questions 7 videos
Want even more deets on ending a sentence with a preposition? Take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Because you've watched this video, you'll know exactly how to use "because" to start a sentence. Go you.
Want even more deets on FANBOYS at the beginning of a sentence? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Split Infinitives - Are They Okay? 551 Views
Share It!
Description:
Want even more deets on Split Infinitives? Click here to review. Or check out our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Transcript
- 00:04
Are split infinitives okay?, a la Shmoop. You're on a road trip to Phoenix, and end
- 00:11
up spending the night at the Bates Motel.
- 00:14
When Norman busts in with his knife, do you opt to bravely fight back with your towel
- 00:19
whip... ...your shaving cream...
- 00:21
...or your ability to cunningly split every infinitive in sight?
Full Transcript
- 00:28
Let's start with what an infinitive is. There are two kinds. Bare infinitives are the one-word
- 00:34
verbs you use every day...
- 00:36
...like “shower”, “shave”, and “kill”.
- 00:40
Full infinitives carry a “to” in front of the verb, so you end up with “to shower”,
- 00:45
“to shave”, and “to kill”.
- 00:48
Splitting an infinitive, then, is what happens when you add a word between “to” and the
- 00:53
bare verb attached to it. Grammarians of the nineteenth century would
- 00:56
have destroyed anyone they caught splitting infinitives.
- 00:59
However, those guys are now ghosts... ...and pretty much everyone today agrees that
- 01:04
splitting infinitives is kosher. Let's look at a couple of examples. You could
- 01:09
say, “Norman worked to carefully conceal Marion's body”...
- 01:13
...meaning Norman hid the girl's corpse where no one was ever going to find it.
- 01:18
But what if you didn't split the infinitive in this example?
- 01:22
What if you said instead, “Norman worked carefully to conceal Marion's body”?
- 01:27
The sentence would have a completely different meaning. “Carefully” would be referring
- 01:31
to how Norman worked...
- 01:33
...rather than to how he concealed. Okay, another example. You could say, “Norman
- 01:38
decided to artfully dress as his dead mother.”
- 01:42
If you don't split the infinitive...
- 01:44
...and say instead that “Norman decided artfully to dress as his dead mother”...
- 01:48
...the result is a sentence that doesn't make sense.
- 01:52
There may come a day when you doubt the correctness of splitting infinitives. If so, just remember
- 01:56
this...
- 01:57
...the catch phrase for “Star Trek” is “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
- 02:02
If Gene Roddenberry was allowed to split infinitives, then you get a pass, too.
Related Videos
This video explains the difference between affect and effect and provide tips for remembering which is which and when to use each one. If you suffe...
Want even more deets on Question Marks? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Want even more deets on Your vs. You're? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
What’s the difference between its and it’s (spoiler alert: it’s more than just an apostrophe). This video covers the use of both of these wor...