Grammar Police

The recent political fracas in the Philippies spawned countless column-inches of coverage in newspapers and countless airtime minutes on TV and the radio. People, pundits, and politicians kept writing and saying terms like freedom, emergency rule, martial law, and that highly annoying (because it's grammatically incorrect) phrase du jour:

inciting to sedition

Can you spot the mistake?

People of the Philippines who speak English: you don't incite to something. You just incite something. Don't you remember high school english?

"Incite", which means instigate or foment, is a transitive verb. This means it needs a direct object. In our phrase du jour, "sedition" is the direct object.

Ok, now think back to freshman year in high school. Back. Back. Nope, don't stop. Further back. (Yes, you're THAT old.)

Now do you remember? Thaaaaaaats right! You don't insert a "to" between a verb and its direct object! You don't instigate to rebellion, do you? Do you eat to dinner? I didn't think so.

So please, please, learn the correct phrase - inciting sedition - and stop bugging me!

Thank you.