David W. Jones1d ago

#WritersCoffeeClub 4/10 What's something other writers swear by that you just don't get?

Never splitting infinitives in English. The rule came from Latin, where an infinitive is a single word. English infinitives are TWO words, and Latin lost all its prestige centuries ago!

Show threadacb1d ago
@dancingtreefrog @cstross Surely never splitting infinitives is just something you would do to demonstrate to your fellow 18th-century English gentry that you went to a grammar school where you got Latin caned into you, and thus are of good breeding and not some jumped-up peasant
Show threadDavid W. Jones
@acb
As a German friend described everyone of European descent: We're all Eurotrash, a blend of wandering tribes a couple thousand years old. We predate the so-called "civilisations" of Greece and Rome and their hoity-toity Johnny-come-lately languages.
@cstross
Apr 11 at 9:37amFedilab