Split infinitive

A separate infinitive is in the English language a grammatical construction in which a word or phrase itself - usually an adverb or adverbial phrase one - between to and bare infinitive form of the verb (ie, the basic form of the verb ) is located. The construction is due to a controversy as to whether it is indeed grammatically permissible, particularly noteworthy.

A famous example of this is a document emanating from the television series Star Trek Quote: "to boldly go where no man has gone before". This causes the presence of the adverb boldly between the two parts of the infinitive to go and a separate infinitive. Such a construction can often be avoided by placing the intervening words after the verb or before the to: "to go boldly where no man has gone before" or " to go boldly where no man has gone before". However, these two formulations do not have the same meaning - the former combines the boldness with the manner of walking, while the latter combines the boldness with the perfect act of going "where no man has gone before".

From the perspective of descriptive linguistics separate infinitives are common in most varieties of English. However, their status is disputed as part of the standard language. In the 19th century various standard works of English grammar tried to introduce a prescriptive rule that separate infinitives in English should not be used. Most language experts of the past 100 years, however, argued that the construction of separate infinitive can sometimes be helpful in order to express a certain meaning more precisely - as in the case of "to boldly go".

• English Language