“Little by little I began to have increasing doubts” [closed]

Question

Is the sentence

Little by little I began to have increasing doubts

grammatically correct? One reason I think it might not be is that if I google little by little I began to have increasing I don't come up with anything except my own quote.

Answer 1

It certainly is grammatical if we define the word as "Accepted by a large percentage of educated native speakers." But it comports with standard grammar anyway; it is an adverbial phrase modifying the verb.

The construction is common, as can be seen in, "One by one, the stragglers showed up." "Bit by bit, the truth emerged."

Answer 2

Little by little I began to have increasing doubts.

The sentence seems grammatically OK to me other than the need for a comma after "little by little".

Semantically it doesn't make a lot of sense. There is redundancy or conflict in the three ideas

• little by little
• began
• increasing.

It might be better to say

I began to have doubts. Little by little, they increased.

Answer 3

I'd say there could even be three semi-tautologies in that sentence:

1. "Little by little"
2. "Began to"
3. "Increasing"

My first thought on whether it was grammatically incorrect however, was placement of comma. I'd put one after the second "little".

Answer 4

"Little by little" and "increasing" have similar connotations, so perhaps you're wondering if it's tautological?

Answer 5

The problem is the common one of trying to speak in nouns. Why do you need to "have increasing doubts"? Increase is a verb so use it as such:

"little by little my doubts increased" or "little by little my doubts began to increase"