Splitting infinitives

The infinitive form of a verb begins with to. For example, to stop, to go, to love and to hate are all infinitives. This raises a question of where you should place an adverb. For example, should you say suddenly to stop, to suddenly stop, or to stop suddenly? The traditional view is that both the first and the third can be correct, but the second one is always wrong.

Unfortunately, however, considerable care is needed when avoiding split infinitives, because the alternatives can give rise ambiguity. Does he decided to stop suddenly mean that it was the decision or the stopping which was sudden? Of course, the mongoose principle can, as always, provide a solution. You could say either he made a sudden decision to stop, or he made a decision to stop suddenly, depending on your meaning. If you still detect a hint of ambiguity in the latter version, you could be even more explicit and say he decided that stopping suddenly was a good idea.