Thread: to not + inf and not + to inf

The preferable way is not + to + infinitive. But in colloquial speech the negation can be put after "to" to make the whole act of not doing something a positive activity.

An example:

This website is titled "How to not get hit by cars". Getting hit by cars is something you likely want to avoid when riding a bicycle. So you actively do something. Stilistically, it would be better to say "How to avoid getting hit by cars", but that's longer. So the people who created this site opted for "How to not get hit by cars".

If they had called their site "How not to get hit by cars" it would have sounded a little like an explanation of "how to get hit by cars in the proper fashion", avoiding getting hit in the wrong way. Which is clearly not what they intend to teach you.

Originally Posted by bitpicker

If they had called their site "How not to get hit by cars" it would have sounded a little like an explanation of "how to get hit by cars in the proper fashion", avoiding getting hit in the wrong way. Which is clearly not what they intend to teach you.

Is it a general rule regarding 'how not to...'?

Not a rule as such. The rule says "not + to + infinitive", but rules do not concern themselves with meaning. Following that rule with the specific expression used on the website may lead to the misunderstanding I quoted, which is why the colloquial, non-standard word order was used, but stylistically preferable is the "how to avoid" solution. It just isn't cool enough.

Google gives me lots of examples where people used "to + not + infinitive" and the majority sound quite awkward to me, so it's an expression best avoided.

Originally Posted by bitpicker

The preferable way is not + to + infinitive. But in colloquial speech the negation can be put after "to" to make the whole act of not doing something a positive activity.

An example:

This website is titled "How to not get hit by cars". Getting hit by cars is something you likely want to avoid when riding a bicycle. So you actively do something. Stilistically, it would be better to say "How to avoid getting hit by cars", but that's longer. So the people who created this site opted for "How to not get hit by cars".

If they had called their site "How not to get hit by cars" it would have sounded a little like an explanation of "how to get hit by cars in the proper fashion", avoiding getting hit in the wrong way. Which is clearly not what they intend to teach you.

Thanks bitpicker, a good explanation, it took me a moment to understand that
In Russian the difference would be:
Как не попасть в аварию на мотоцикле. "How to not get hit by cars"
Как не нужно попасть в аварию на мотоцикле. "How not to get hit by cars"
Could you say the examples in German?

@ Romik: Wie man von Autos nicht überfahren wird. Wie man nicht von Autos überfahren wird.

But you wouldn't say it like that, but rather "wie man es vermeidet, von Autos überfahren zu werden", which is quite the same thing as "how to avoid..."

Originally Posted by Romik

Как не нужно попадать в аварию на мотоцикле. "How not to get hit by cars"