In English, the subjunctive mood is used to explore conditional or imaginary situations. It can be tricky to use, which partially explains why many speakers and writers forgo it. But it’s quite useful (and aesthetically pleasing, at least to us), and careful users of English should do their part to preserve it.
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Participles are versatile adjectives (sometimes adverbs) formed by adding -ing or -ed to the stem of an infinitive verb. [Read more...]
A phrasal verb is a phrase (a group of two or more words working together) that functions as a verb. [Read more...]
If the subject of a clause acts, the clause is in the active voice. If the subject is acted upon, the clause is in the passive voice. For example, I kissed Sheila is in the active voice because the subject (I) acts (kissed) upon the object of the verb (Sheila). I was kissed by Sheila is in the passive voice because the subject is being acted upon. [Read more...]
Auxiliary verbs are irregular verbs that mainly provide information about other types of verbs. The main auxiliary verbs in English are to have, to be, and their conjugated forms, while others include can, could, did, do, may, should, and would. [Read more...]
A non-finite verb is a verb that does not function as the predicate verb in a clause. While some non-finite verbs take the form of past or present participles, they are generally not inflected—that is, they don’t have mood, tense, number, aspect, gender, or person. [Read more...]
Contrary to what some grammarians may say, there is no rule against using split infinitives in English. One should use them with care, but splitting an infinitive is sometimes the best way to clearly express a thought.
An infinitive is the uninflected form of a verb preceded by to—for example, to walk, to inflect, to split. A split infinitive is created by placing an adverb or adverbial phrase between the to and the verb—for example, to boldly go, to casually walk, to gently push. Although split infinitives have been widely condemned in grade-school classrooms, they’re common in writing of all kinds.
Knowing when to split an infinitive requires practice and a good ear for the English language. When in doubt, avoid splits, but don’t ruin a perfectly clear and natural-sounding sentence just to adhere to an arbitrary anti-splitting rule.
When moving the adverb to the end of a phrase doesn’t cause confusion or change the sentence’s meaning, it’s a good idea to keep the infinitive intact—for example:
He urged me to casually walk up and say hello.
There’s no reason why this sentence couldn’t be,
He urged me to walk up casually and say hello.
It’s also a good idea to avoid splitting infinitives too widely:
This software allows your company to quickly, easily, and cost-effectively manage all tasks.
A possible revision would be,
This software allows your company to manage all tasks quickly, easily, and cost effectively.
Sometimes, a split infinitive is simply more awkward than an alternative:
Do you have to so loudly play?
This sentence would be much less awkward as,
Do you have to play so loudly?
Infinitives should be split when the adverb either needs emphasis or wouldn’t work anywhere else in the sentence—for example:
They’re expected to gradually come down in price to about $50 to $75 each. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Placing gradually anywhere else in this sentence (They’re gradually expected . . . ; . . . come down in price gradually to about . . . ) would create awkwardness and confusion. Another example:
Caterpillar plans to more than triple employment at its four-year-old diesel generator plant in Newberry. [The State]
Here, the phrase more than would not work anywhere else in the sentence.
In a sentence, the grammatical mood conveys the speaker’s attitude about the state of being of what the sentence describes. This may sound a little complicated, but it’s simple enough: In the indicative mood, for instance, the speaker is sure that something is the case, while in the imperative mood the speaker desires that something should happen. [Read more...]