Grammar experts have long argued that splitting an infinitive – as in the famous Star Trek line, “to boldly go” – should be avoided at all costs. Others have taken a more relaxed approach.
But a new study has found that split infinitives are now in such common usage that they have become part of everyday language. In other words, teachers no longer need to advise pupils against writing phrases like “to just go”, “to actually get” or “to really want”.
Language experts at Lancaster University and Cambridge University Press amassed what they claim is the largest ever public collection of transcribed British conversations.
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