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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

It is + adjective + not to / to not

Dear all

Which structure is correct?

1) It is impossible not to do something.

2) It is impossible to not do something.

Which sounds more natural? Or it depends on what follows?

thanks!!
  

Top answer

2 sounds more natural to me. But "It is impossible not to do anything" also sounds right.

— BarbaraPA

  • 2 sounds more natural to me.
  • But "It is impossible not to do anything" also sounds right.
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7 Answers
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2 sounds more natural to me. But "It is impossible not to do anything" also sounds right.
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"impossible not to do"
sounds better, IMO,
is MUCH more frequent at Yahoo
and the only one at the NYT, thus it gets my vote.

"to not do" splits an infinitive, not too attractive a feat to many
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I think the "never split an infinitive" is from the same school as "never end a sentence with a preposition." I have been known to readily do it.
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Yahoo:
1 - 10 of about 5,670 for "impossible not to do"
1 - 10 of about 195 for "impossible to not do"

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The NYT:
"impossible not to do" 2 Results
"impossible to not do" 0 Results

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    Which structure is correct?

    Only:

    It is impossible not to ...

    (Prescriptive rule.)

    CJ
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    The split infinitive sounds far, far worse than a preposition at the end of a sentence.
    But just consider the fact that the negative infinitive is formed with "not" before "to". "To be or to not be...???".
    An infinitive split with other adverbs doesn't sound so bad: "To boldly go where no man has gone before".
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    0 Faulkner on Tennyson (in "Light in August"):02br
    02br
    01i00It is like listening in a cathedral to an eunuch chanting in a02br
    00 language which one does01b00n't even02b00 need 01b00to not02b00 understand. 02i    0-
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