Split infinitive

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prinkalvaid: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Sun Apr 24, 2011 4:34 am

Split infinitive

by prinkalvaid » Sun May 01, 2011 2:26 am

To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is gradually instilling the notion that many of those who are just called "needy" actually have adequate resources; such a conclusion is unwarranted.

a) Original sentence
b) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is instilling the notion gradually
c) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is gradually to instill the notion
d) Speaking habitually of the "truly needed" is to instill the gradual notion
e) Speaking habitually of the "truly needed" is instilling the gradual notion

In my opinion the answer should be d),but the correct answer is c)

Does anyone has any explanations??

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun May 01, 2011 2:26 am

Chaitanya_1986: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 183; Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:29 am; Thanked: 7 times; Followed by:2 members

by Chaitanya_1986 » Sun May 01, 2011 3:02 am

To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is gradually instilling the notion that many of those who are just called "needy" actually have adequate resources; such a conclusion is unwarranted.

a) Original sentence
b) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is instilling the notion gradually
c) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is gradually to instill the notion
d) Speaking habitually of the "truly needed" is to instill the gradual notion
e) Speaking habitually of the "truly needed" is instilling the gradual notion

See this is purely parallel structure error...
To speak/speaking should be in parallel to to instill/instilling

Eliminate all except C and E

Generally we use + ing form for something that is going on (or) if we speak on complete process.
+to form for something to start.

So here C is better than E; more over E changes the meaning.

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atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 am; Thanked: 77 times; Followed by:49 members

by atulmangal » Sun May 01, 2011 3:06 am

prinkalvaid wrote:To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is gradually instilling the notion that many of those who are just called "needy" actually have adequate resources; such a conclusion is unwarranted.

a) Original sentence
b) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is instilling the notion gradually
c) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is gradually to instill the notion
d) Speaking habitually of the "truly needed" is to instill the gradual notion
e) Speaking habitually of the "truly needed" is instilling the gradual notion

In my opinion the answer should be d),but the correct answer is c)

Does anyone has any explanations??

You can solve this question by applying the parallelism concept: Verbs like IS, ARE demands a parallelism on both sides...

Gradually is just an adverb, so we need to make the part before IS parallel to part after gradually..

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force5: Legendary Member; Posts: 582; Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:48 am; Thanked: 61 times; Followed by:6 members; GMAT Score:740

by force5 » Sun May 01, 2011 3:37 am

ok what we are doing here is maintaining parallelism on both sides of "IS" A, B, D can be eliminated because they are breaking parallelism.

back to C and E.

E is incorrect because

speaking is a gerund and habitually is a adverb (incorrect modifier). i should say habitual speaking instead of speaking habitually.

C maintains that parallelism to speak ........ to instill.

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Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pm; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; Followed by:45 members; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Sun May 01, 2011 7:56 am

A "split infinitive" is the insertion of one or more words between to and the plain form of the verb; it is usually the adverb inserted, as in to boldly go where no man has gone before.

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sharmasumitn1: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 66; Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 4:54 pm; Thanked: 4 times

by sharmasumitn1 » Sun May 01, 2011 11:40 am

Jim@Grockit wrote:A "split infinitive" is the insertion of one or more words between to and the plain form of the verb; it is usually the adverb inserted, as in to boldly go where no man has gone before.

instead of
c) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is gradually to instill the notion

the correct answer should be

c) To speak habitually of the "truly needed" is to gradually instill the notion