The important thing is that he should go You Could Look It Up A split infinitive occurs when an adverb or adverbial phrase is placed between to and the verb.. Different Types of Phrase
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Split Infinitives: To Boldly Go Where Everyone
Else Goes
As their motto proves, the crew of the USS Enterprise split their infinitives along with
their atoms The motto should read: "To Go Boldly " They're not alone You were
introduced to split infinitives in Chapter 2 Remember that a split infinitive occurs
when an adverb or adverbial phrase is placed between to and the verb
People who feel strongly about their split
infinitives really feel strongly about their split
infinitives A famous New Yorker cartoon
shows Captain Bligh sailing away from the
Bounty in a rowboat and shouting, "So Mr
Christian! You propose to unceremoniously cast
me adrift?" The caption beneath the cartoon
reads: "The crew can no longer tolerate
Captain Bligh's ruthless splitting of infinitives."
Even though some people get their pencils bent out of shape over this matter, there is
no authoritative grammar and usage text that expressly forbids it Famous writers have been splitting their infinitives with abandon for centuries George Bernard Shaw, the
brilliant Irish playwright, once sent this letter to the Times of London: "There is a
busybody on your staff who devotes a lot of time to chasing split infinitives: I call for the immediate dismissal of this pedant It is of no consequence whether he decides to
go quickly or to quickly go or quickly to go The important thing is that he should go
You Could Look It Up
A split infinitive occurs
when an adverb or adverbial phrase is placed between to and the verb
at once
What should you do? While I do not
advo-cate that you go around town splitting
in-finitives with abandon, there's no point in
mangling a sentence just to avoid a split
infinitive Good writers occasionally split
infinitives to create emphasis, achieve a
natural word order, and avoid confusion
If splitting an infinitive makes it possible for
you to achieve the precise shade of meaning
you desire, you have my blessing to split away
Take My Word for It
The twentieth-century writer and cartoonist James Thurber had this to say to the editor who rearranged his infinitive:
"When I split an infinitive, it is going to damn well stay split!"
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The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Fortunately for me as the grammar maven, English grammar and usage has many confusing issues And fortunately for you, only a handful of them come up with any
frequency Let's take a look at these hot issues in the grammar news: how to use hope-fully, whether to use like or as, and ending sentences with a preposition
Hopefully
Since the eighteenth century, hopefully has been used to mean "in a hopeful manner,"
as in Robert Louis Stevenson's saying, "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive." But during the past generation, the adverb has come to mean "it is to be hoped." Today, it is also applied to situations as well as to people, as in "His fried eel will hopefully turn out well." In addition, rather than modifying (describing) a specific
verb, as in Stevenson's example, hopefully is now used to modify an entire sentence
Except for a few lone holdouts (and if you're one of them, please don't contact me),
most people and dictionaries now accept hopefully as meaning "it is to be hoped." So
don't sweat this one
Like/As
The like/as debate is another potential minefield About 50 years ago, a cigarette
com-pany started a new ad campaign whose centerpiece was this jingle: "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." When English teachers, grammarians, and various pun-dits reacted with horror at the misuse of "like" for "as," the company came back with this rejoinder: "What do you want—good grammar or good taste?" Thanks to all the free publicity Winston received, the marketing executives no doubt laughed all the way to the bank
Here's the generally accepted like/as rule:
1 Use like or as as a preposition to join a noun, as in these examples:
• Cleans like a blizzard
• Blind as a bat
2 Do not use like as a conjunction to introduce an adverb clause, as in this example: Incorrect: Nobody can do it like McDonald's can
Correct: Nobody can do it as McDonald's can
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Here's my advice: Write sentences that sound good like a sentence should Don't cre-ate awkward-sounding sentences to conform to this (or any) rule
Ending with a Preposition
Some prissy scholars have tried (with a great deal of success) to foist a bunch of phony Latin grammar rules into English grammar, especially concerning the issue of not
ending a sentence with a preposition To be correct, you could say, "This off me ticks."
To sound smooth, you could end with the preposition and say, "This ticks me off."
My advice? Try to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition when possible, but never
twist a sentence like something out of the Kama Sutra to avoid it Make your sentences
sound natural and graceful If a few sentences end with a preposition, you'll be just fine I give you permission to write "This ticks me off' rather than "This off me ticks."
The Least You Need to Know
• A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that describes something that has been left out of the sentence Fix it by adding what's missing
• A misplaced modifier is placed too far from the word or words it modifies Put all modifiers as close as possible to the words they describe
• Don't string together clichés and you won't get writing that's as dull as dishwater
• The jury's out on split infinitives and ending a sentence with a preposition
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Usage and Abusage
Then there's the story about the man who appeared at the Pearly Gates St Peter asked him, "Who goes there?"
"It is I," answered the man
"Oh, no," moaned St Peter "Not another English teacher."
In this part, you get the lowdown on the building blocks of writing: phrases, clauses, and sentences If you ever meet St Peter, you'll know what to say—and how to say it!
Trang 7Chapter
Phrases: Prime-Time Players
In This Chapter
• Probe prepositional phrases
• Admire appositives
• Visit verbals
In this chapter, we start the construction of your writing with the phrase, one of the key building blocks of the sentence There are several different kinds of phrases, including prepositional phrases (with the subcategories adjectival phrases and adverbial phrases), appositives, and verbals In this chapter, you learn them all First, I teach you the individual parts of each different phrase and then ease you into the phrases themselves
Phrases of the Moon
A phrase is a group of words that functions in a sentence as a single part of
speech A phrase does not have a subject or a verb As you write, you use phrases to
• Add detail by describing
• Make your meaning more precise
• Fold in additional information
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You Could Look It Up
A phrase is a group of words, without a subject or a verb, that functions in a
sentence as a single part of speech A phrase cannot stand alone as an independent unit A phrase can function only as a part of speech
The following table shows the different types of phrases
Different Types of Phrases
Prepositional Begins with a preposition and
ends with a noun or pronoun Adjectival Prepositional phrase that
functions as an adjective Adverbial Prepositional phrase that
functions as an adverb
Appositive Noun or pronoun that renames
another noun or pronoun
Verbal A verb form used as another
part of speech
Participle Verbal phrase that functions
as an adjective
Gerund Verbal phrase that functions
as a noun Infinitive Verbal phrase that functions
as a noun, adjective, or adverb
by the lake She has a fish with red gills
We cheered with loud voices Lou, a Viking, enjoys plunder
(See the following three entries.)
Eating slowly, the child was
finally quiet
Partying hearty requires
great endurance
To sleep late on Sunday is a
real treat
Prepositional Phrases: The Big Daddy of Phrases
A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with
a noun or a pronoun This noun or pronoun is called the "object of the preposition." Here are some sample prepositional phrases:
• By the ocean
• Near the window
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• Over the cabinet
• With us
• In your ear
• Under your hat
You can connect two or more prepositional
phrases with a coordinating conjunction
The seven coordinating conjunctions are
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so For example:
• The resort is beside the mountain and
by the lake
The coordinating conjunction is and
• You can usually find Macho Marvin in
the steam room, on the exercise bike, or
under the barbells
The coordinating conjunction is or
You Could Look It Up
A prepositional phrase
is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with
a noun or a pronoun
$
r Quoth the Maven _
i V r To find out if a prepositional phrase is functioning as an ad-jectival phrase, see if it answers these questions: "Which one?" or
"What kind?"
Offspring 1: Adjectival Phrases
When a prepositional phrase serves as an adjective, it's called an adjectival phrase
(That was a no-brainer, eh? Who says you don't get a break in this English biz?)
An adjectival phrase, as with an adjective, describes a noun or a pronoun Here are some examples:
• The manager with the pink slips terrorized the employees
The adjectival phrase "with the pink slips" describes the noun "manager."
• The price of the promotion was much too steep
The adjectival phrase "of the promotion" describes the noun "price."
• Something in the corner of the desk was
moving
The adjectival phrase "in the corner"
describes the noun "something"; the
adjectival phrase "of the desk" describes
the noun "corner."
You Could Look It Up
T S S E R ^ An adverbial phrase is
a prepositional phrase that modi-fies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb
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Offspring 2: Adverbial Phrases
Like Meryl Streep or Kevin Kline, the prepositional phrase is a versatile creature, able
to slip into different roles Depending on how it is used in a sentence, a prepositional
phrase can function as an adverbial phrase by modifying a verb, an adjective, or an
adverb For example:
• She lost her head at the retro love-in
The adverbial phrase "at the retro love-in" describes the verb "lost."
• The salesperson skimmed over the product's real cost
The adverbial phrase "over the product's real cost" modifies the verb "skimmed."
• The boss was thrilled at their attitude
^ y Quoth the Maven
To find out if a prepositional
phrase is functioning as an
adverbial phrase, see if it
answers one of these questions:
"Where?" "When?" "In what
manner?" "To what extent?"
The adverbial phrase "at their attitude" modi-fies the adjective "thrilled."
• The rock climbers arrived late at night
The adverbial phrase "at night" modifies the adverb "late."
Appositives: Something More for Your Money
An appositive is a noun or a pronoun that renames another noun or pronoun Appositives
are placed directly after the noun or pronoun they identify For example:
• Bob's car, a wreck, died a grisly death by the side of the interstate
The appositive "a wreck" renames the noun, "car."
• Spot, a cat, should understand my moods
The appositive "a cat" renames the noun, "Spot."
• She, my sister, is always late
The appositive "my sister" renames the pronoun "she."
You Could Look It Up _,
An appositive is a noun
or pronoun that renames another
noun or pronoun
Some appositives are essential to the meaning of the sentence; others are not Be sure to use commas care-fully to establish meaning with essential and nones-sential appositives Otherwise your sentences will not make sense, as these examples show: