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Grammar pedants - help please.

1 lurker | 95 watchers

abdou Oct 2007 2:24pm, 24 Oct 2007 518 posts	Quote Pin abdou Nowt wrong with a split infinitive, if I may quickly raise a pet peeve...
Hendo Oct 2007 2:30pm, 24 Oct 2007 11,170 posts	Quote Pin Hendo You may quickly raise one yes
abdou Oct 2007 2:32pm, 24 Oct 2007 519 posts	Quote Pin abdou I humbly thank you, sir Unless one is writing in Latin (well done you!), one may feel free to brazenly split all the infinitives one wishes.
Dvorak Oct 2007 2:36pm, 24 Oct 2007 408 posts	Quote Pin Dvorak 'Have best enabled us to estimate' ? These estimates are the best currently available (which does not, however, preclude them being crap, just less crap than the previous ones). And avoids the split infinitive.
Stumpy Oct 2007 2:45pm, 24 Oct 2007 4,723 posts	Quote Pin Stumpy wonders how it would be possible to split an infinitive in latin, because isn't the infinitive one word in latin? still think it should be better, not best.
abdou Oct 2007 2:47pm, 24 Oct 2007 520 posts	Quote Pin abdou Exactly Stumps, that's why it shouldn't be a rule in English
Stumpy Oct 2007 2:52pm, 24 Oct 2007 4,724 posts	Quote Pin Stumpy the romans had very strict grammatical rules about some things (e.g. case, word endings etc) but word order was a bit of a free for all in sentences (albeit there is a 'right' way to construct a sentence in latin) or at least it was in my o-level texts! anyway.... according to askoxford.com, a split infinitive is not grammatically incorrect, but they are frequently poor style and so "It is probably good practice to avoid split infinitives in formal writing, but clumsy attempts to avoid them simply by shuffling adverbs about can create far worse sentences."
abdou Oct 2007 2:53pm, 24 Oct 2007 521 posts	Quote Pin abdou ushers in reign of chaos Both 'best estimate' and 'better estimate' are fine and should be so for any client worth their cheque.
abdou Oct 2007 2:54pm, 24 Oct 2007 522 posts	Quote Pin abdou That askoxford thing sounds reasonable to me.
Huge Oct 2007 10:57pm, 29 Oct 2007 1,791 posts	Quote Pin Huge An "educated guess" . Anyone? Or is that just more horse shit? I could say I'm educated but does that make me any better at guessing?