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I'm reading a professionally written business document and I am seeing the word "is" placed oddly to my eyes and ears. I wanted to see if there is a grammatical reason for the choice that I should be following.

Example: Reading a book largely is an indoor activity.

I would write that: reading a book is largely an indoor activity.

Is the former grammatically more correct (or more grammatically correct)? Or is it just the style of the author?

user181027
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1 Answers1

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"Is largely"

It's to do with parsing the sentence, rather than grammar, I think.

Consider "Reading a book is largely an indoor activity." - this is broken down into 

Reading a book 
is largely 
an indoor activity.

On the other hand, "Reading a book largely is an indoor activity." runs the risk of being parsed as 

Reading a book largely 
is an indoor activity.

Ie, that largely has become an adverb, and you're talking about "Reading a book largely", like "Reading a book quietly" or "Reading a book quickly".

"Is largely" avoids that confusion.

Max Williams
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  • I agree with your thinking, which is why it was odd to see the "largely is" version used repeatedly in this document which has, I'm sure been through multiple layers of edits and proofing. I thought there must be a reason for that usage. – user181027 Jun 15 '16 at 14:10
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    Largely is an adverb in both cases, but the awkwardness of the placement is that it could be modifying either is (which makes sense) or reading (which would be a very unorthodox description). – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Jun 15 '16 at 14:33
  • Good point @Chappo - I tend to forget that "is" is a verb too. – Max Williams Jun 15 '16 at 14:36