To boldly go to the most famous grammar mistake of all time.

[Escapefromwhatever]

Don't get me wrong, Star Trek is a wonderful show, but it has what is perhaps the most publicized grammar mistake in history. You see, a split infinitive is when one takes an infinitive, such as "to do," "to eat," or "to play," and then adds a word or term in between the word "to" and the action of the infinitive. This disrupts what is supposed to be a single term, and then causes a minor grammar fallacy. Some examples of split infinitives are "to quickly run" or "to not die," which should actually be "to run quickly" or "not to die." I have hesitated until now to bring up how common split infinitives are, but I feel that it is appropriate to make a thread on this topic. Recently I have seen far too many intelligent people, including some escapist forum members and Yahtzee, falling prey to the split infinitive. Please excuse any rudeness I may have had in making this topic.

Also, in order to make this thread discussion worthy, I must ask- are there any grammar mistakes or other linguistic fallacies that people make that are pet peeves of yours?

 

[3rd rung]

wow man I really don't care I feel it is such a minor issue to bring up and other things would be more important to disscus

 

[Yoshi_egg80]

Well then it should be called ZG not ZP.

Glad there are grammar oriented people like you to keep the rest of us in line.

 

[Hazy]

I'm so tempted to bust out the Grammar Nazi Picture..

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

I'm so tempted to bust out the Grammar Nazi Picture..

Do it, I'd love to see it.

Homework: Tell me what is wrong with the above sentence =P.

 

[Hazy]

I'm so tempted to bust out the Grammar Nazi Picture..

Spoiler: Allow me.

Close, but I was going for this:

But here, have a cookie
A Grammar Cookie.

 

[joystickjunki3]

I'm pretty sure Yahtzee did it on purpose, though.

 

[joystickjunki3]

I'm pretty sure Yahtzee did it on purpose, though.

He probably did. I cannot imagine him making a mistake, unless he wanted it to be there.

Agreed.

You got probated? That sucks, man.

 

[Jezzy54]

I don't care about the Star Trek grammar thing, and I never really thought "Press X to not die" was supposed to be grammatically correct. Grammar isn't that big a deal, and when you get that worked up about it you sound like a tool.

 

[jackbomb9]

Yes! Grammar Nazi's unite! I have a bit of a pet peeve for split infinitives too, ever since I found out what they were.

Also, using 'a' when 'an' is appropriate, like 'an horrendous mistake' spoken as 'a horrendous mistake'. The first one is correct, the second one is not. It's not that hard to remember, and easy enough to correct.

 

[Hazy]

I'm pretty sure Yahtzee did it on purpose, though.

He probably did. I cannot imagine him making a mistake, unless he wanted it to be there.

That sucks about the probation Brother..
That damn PhillyGarver >_>

 

[Hazy]

I'm pretty sure Yahtzee did it on purpose, though.

He probably did. I cannot imagine him making a mistake, unless he wanted it to be there.

That sucks about the probation Brother..
That damn PhillyGavin >_>

Hahahaha! Yeah. It was wrong for me to quote from Youtube and post it on here, no other way around it. Wrong is wrong, in my book so I'm not disputing it. Ah sure, 3 days and I'm out of probation, so it's all good. Also, my probation will only draw interest into the forum, reading some of the epic posts there. If anything, it's advertisment...sadly

Yeah, you're right. But that still sucks, because you weren't the bad guy there.

 

[BBQ Platypus]

The "split infinitive" rule is bullshit - it's a misguided attempt to apply Latin rules of grammar to English. There is absolutely no rational reason to object to the split infinitive in most cases. The only time when split infinitives should be avoided is when it causes the construction of a sentence to become awkward, which is not the case here.

Following this "no infinitives" rule would entirely rob the statement of all the punch and poetic rhythm that it has. A split infinitive makes grammatical and poetic sense here - no rational person would object to it.

This thread is nothing more than the rote application of an obscure grammatical quibble to a case to which it quite simply does not apply.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

I don't care about the Star Trek grammar thing, and I never really thought "Press X to not die" was supposed to be grammatically correct. Grammar isn't that big a deal, and when you get that worked up about it you sound like a tool.

I wasn't particularly angry, and how can I sound like a tool? That would imply that I am a conformist, panderer, or some other kind of person who is used by others. In this case, who would be using me, the English language?

This is why grammar is important- so people know what the fuck they're saying. An occasional grammar mistake is fine, but I think you guys know what I mean.