There is nothing grammatically wrong with a "split infinitive"

[Habbibu]

So there.

[Tutterotsky]

i know my dad (62yo, went to posh school) was taught that it was a Very Bad Thing

but in my 70s comp it was never mentioned

[fryalot]

I wholeheartedly agree

[belgo]

what's a split infinitive?

[Tutterotsky]

to boldly go = split infinitive
to go boldly = approved by tutter's dad

[Tutterotsky]

(the infinitive = to go / to catch / to mumsnet)

(so, a split one would be e.g. to frantically mumsnet)

[belgo]

thank you tutter

[vonsudenfed]

The reason why it is/was supposed to be a bad thing is that it is impossible to do in Latin (where the infinitive is all one word) so in the 18th C it was judged - Latin being the arbiter of all right - to be therefore wrong in English as well.

So, decide for yourself whether this is relevant or not, although I am with RR, and think it rarely flows well...

[belgo]

It's also impossible to do in dutch I think.

[CountessDracula]

I don't like them either
I think we were publicly humiliated for them at school and it has stuck

[Threadwworm]

I don't use them, but I don't take them out of other people's writing as these days they are officially incorrect -- and also sometimes their removal creates ambiguity or clunkiness in a sentence, which would mean re-writing it from scratch. Can't think of an example offhand

[Threadwworm]

officially correct

[prettybird]

I think Fowler's (the arbiter of all things correct in grammar ) actually says that the "prohibition" is actually an incorrect application of the Latin - and that on occasions it is not only permisable but preferable to split an infinitive, because not to do so actaully changes the meaning.

[Bink]

Depends on rest of bit of writing.

Good stylish smooth grammatical writing inc. a split infinitive (for some reason I was going to write split expletive there) or two - no problem whatsoever, clearly being done deliberately (perhaps for effect, doesn't matter why).

Rubbish clunky syntactically muddled writing with split infinitives in it - well, clearing out those might be a place to start. (But split inf.s are rarely the only issue in those circs.!)

[Threadwworm]

Like the idea of a split expletive -- 'I thought I told you to f$$$$ing p$ss off!'

[Habbibu]

I find the ways around the split infinitive to be quite inelegant sometimes. But it's a stylistic issue, not grammatical. Hurrah! We're in agreement.