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Cboutin3 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Is the use of 'next' correct in this sentence?

Verminaard’s forces conquered lands in Solamnia and Abanasinia in 351 AC, and he established his primary headquarters at the fortress of Pax Tharkas, where he prepared to next lead his army against the elves of Qualinesti.
  

Top answer

Hello Cboutin. There are those who object to putting anything between to and an infinitive - it's called splitting an infinitive . There are those who don't mind and think it's pedantic to object, but, granted that many people find it clumsy, I'd avoid doing it gratuitously: that's to say where it's easy to avoid.

— Thomas Tompion

  • Hello Cboutin.
  • There are those who object to putting anything between to and an infinitive - it's called splitting an infinitive .
  • There are those who don't mind and think it's pedantic to object, but, granted that many people find it clumsy, I'd avoid doing it gratuitously: that's to say where it's easy to avoid.
  • You can easily avoid it here by saying he established his primary headquarters at the fortress of Pax Tharkas, where he prepared to lead his army next against the elves of Qualinesti.
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2 Answers
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Hello Cboutin.

There are those who object to putting anything between to and an infinitive - it's called splitting an infinitive. There are those who don't mind and think it's pedantic to object, but, granted that many people find it clumsy, I'd avoid doing it gratuitously: that's to say where it
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Thomas TompionThere are those who object to putting anything between to and an infinitive - it's called splitting an infinitive.
The problem with this is that English doesn’t have an infinitive to split. To lead is not really a verb-form, but two separate words: the verb phrase subordinator to and the verb lead, the head of the verb
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