Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/332
be honest, but not I claim this to be honest. The Oxford Dictionary (1893) does not mention the latter use even to condemn it, but it is now becoming very common, and calls for strong protest. The corresponding passive use is equally wrong. The same applies to pretend.
'This entirely new experiment' which you claim to have 'solved the problem of combining...'–Times.
Usage, therefore, is not, as it is often claimed to be, the absolute law of language.–R. G. White.
The gun which made its first public appearance on Saturday is claimed to be the most serviceable weapon of its kind in use in any army.–Times.
The constant failure to live up to what we claim to be our most serious convictions proves that we do not hold them at all.–Daily Telegraph.
The anonymous and masked delators whose creation the Opposition pretends to be an abuse of power on the part of M. Combes.—Times.
Possible and probable are not to be completed by an infinitive. For are possible to read can; and for probable read likely.
But no such questions are possible, as it seems to me, to arise between your nation and ours.–Choate.
Should Germany meditate anything of the kind it would look uncommonly like a deliberate provocation of France, and for that reason it seems scarcely probable to be borne out by events.–Times.
Prefer has two constructions: I prefer this (living) to that (dying), and I prefer to do this rather than that. The infinitive construction must not be used without rather (unless, of course, the second alternative is suppressed altogether).
Other things being equal, I should prefer to marry a rich man than a poor one.–E. F. Benson.
The following infinitives are perhaps by false analogy from those that might follow forbade, seen, ask. It may be noticed generally that slovenly and hurried writers find the infinitive a great resource.
Marshal Oyama strictly prohibited his troops to take quarter within the walls.–Times.
The Chinese held a chou-chou, during which the devil was exorcised and duly witnessed by several believers to take his fight in divers guises.–Times.
Third, they might demand from Germany, all flushed as she was with military pride, to tell us plainly whether...–Morley.