The Penguin Guide to Plain English

The Split Infinitive

One can scarcely leave the subject of the infinitive w ithout reference to
the vexed question o f the split infinitive. There are linguistic issues w hich
arouse great passion, and this is one o f them. It is difficult to sympathize
w ith those w ho w ould totally ban its use. There are times w hen it is
tasteless. W hen President Nixon first faced questions about Watergate,
he is reported to have told his staff I w ant you to all stonewall it. N ow
clearly it w ould have been better to say I w ant you all to stonewall it.
But it is not difficult to assemble instances o f the split infinitive w hich
are unobjectionable.
The steam will soften your skin, enabling you to gently remove any
blackheads with tissue-covered fingers.
You should be able to simply slot the new stud into the original mortices
in these two beams.
It is difficult to see the point o f replacing to gently rem ove w ith gently
to rem ove and to simply slot w ith simply to slot.

T H E PRESENT PA R TIC IPLE

We turn now to consider the first o f a group o f constructions w hich
probably cause m ore elementary grammatical upsets than any others in
our language. They involve participles and the gerund. Our first concern
is w ith that part o f the verb w hich ends in -ing. There are two such
forms to be distinguished, the gerund and the present participle. That is
to say, we have to distinguish the use o f the w ord singing in the
sentence Singing is m y hobby from its use in the sentence I heard
father singing in the bath.
In the first instance singing functions as a noun. Though it is part o f
a verb, it is the subject o f the sentence and functions just as a real
noun w ould in Music is my hobby. That is the gerund, sometimes
conveniently called the verbal n o u n . In the second instance singing
functions as an adjective. Though it is part o f a verb, it functions just as
a real adjective w ould, describing father. That is a participle. O f course