"I want to one day marry "/I want to marry one day.

[Odessa Dawn]

"He knows I want to one day marry and have kids and he doesn't want any of that."


He knows I want to marry one day and have kids and he doesn't want any of that.


Which one is grammatical, please? Also, I have a problem with the word and. I think it should be but, shouldn't it?

PS: Apologize for asking you two questions in the same post.
​

 

[bhaisahab]

"He knows I want to one day marry and have kids and he doesn't want any of that."


He knows I want to marry one day and have kids and he doesn't want any of that.


Which one is grammatical, please? Also, I have a problem with the word and. I think it should be but, shouldn't it?

PS: Apologize for asking you two questions in the same post.
​

Only the second one is correct. Both "and" and "but" are possible after "kids".

 

[probus]

To me, the word order "to one day do something" sounds natural, although perhaps somewhat florid or poetic.

And the phrase "to one day marry" occurs three times in the CoCAE.

 

[Rover_KE]

My view is the opposite of probus's.

'...to one day do something' is a good example of the inelegant result of splitting an infinitive.

 

[emsr2d2]

I find it odd that, in both the original sentences, "to marry" and "to have kids" have been separated. It seems to me that they are both something that the writer wants to do one day. I would suggest either:

I want, one day, to marry and have kids.
or
I want to marry and have kids one day.

I agree that "I want to one day marry ..." sounds overly poetic for day-to-day use, though I have no real issue with the split infinitive.

 

[5jj]

It seems fair to at this point say that some of us do not find it necessary to all the time keep our infinitives unsplit.

 

[Raymott]

I'd say that "get married" is much more common than "marry"; at least it sounds more natural to me.
"He knows I want to get married and have kids one day."
(Especially as 'kids' is colloquial, and 'marry' as opposed to "get married" sounds formal (to me).

 

[5jj]

It seems fair to at this point say that some of us do not find it necessary to all the time keep our infinitives unsplit.

To those who might not have realised, the sentence above is not natural; it was a weak attempt to be humorous. Even infinitive-splitters would not normally put more than one word, or at most two, between the 'to' and the verb.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd say that "get married" is much more common than "marry"; at least it sounds more natural to me.
"He knows I want to get married and have kids one day."
(Especially as 'kids' is colloquial, and 'marry' as opposed to "get married" sounds formal (to me).

I agree. The "formality" or otherwise could be dictated by the use of the phrases:

I would like, one day, to marry and have children.
I want to get married and have kids one day.