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Subject:Re: What should one do with split infinitives? From:Lee Hunter <leeghunter -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 14 Apr 2005 22:15:35 -0400
Rahul Prabhakar wrote:
> What should one do with split infinitives that is an infinitive with
> an adverb between 'to' and the verb (for instance, 'to properly
> interpret')? Do we let them be during sentence construction or modify
> the sentence?
>
> Picture this, "Provide the definitions of all terms, acronyms, and
> abbreviations required *to properly interpret* the SRS."
There's nothing wrong with split infinitives (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_infinitive for a lengthy
discussion). However, in the example you cite, I'd be tempted to drop
the word "properly" just because it doesn't add much meaning to the
sentence. I'm also unsure about the whole "required to interpret"
phrase. Seems needlessly stiff to me (but I don't know the context).
How about just saying "Provide the definitions of all terms,
acronyms, and abbreviations used in the SRS."
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