This sentence made me want to kill myself.
Just kidding
Comment on Lmao
chuckleslord@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I generally think the rule on splitting infinitives was made up by English majors upset that English isn’t more compatible with Latin, but in this case I think the attempt to avoid the split made the sentence weaker and ruins the sentiment.
“Trying to not kill yourself” implies effort. It sounds like you’re actively avoiding something. “Trying not to kill yourself” sounds like you’re doing something different, to change it up.
electricyarn@lemmy.world 1 day ago
zante@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Have you you tried antidepressants?
OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
You’re right. There’s no actual rule in English that you can’t split infinitives. It was copied over from Latin in an attempt to try to come up with some rules for grammar.
Source: Many nerdy discussions with Star Trek geeks about “to boldly go where no one has gone before”