Prepositions at the End of the Sentence
One of the major bugaboos of the English language is the " rule" that you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, like the following:
Where do rules of grammar come from?
Rules should grow naturally from the language, rather than be imposed artificially. (See rules of grammar.)
Here is what some prominent scholars of the English language have to say about that rule.
- " Good writers throughout the history of English--from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Alison Lurie and David Lodge--have
not shrunk from ending clauses or sentences with prepositions. It isn't something that we should go out of our way to do, but if the alternative that comes readily to mind seems stilted, there's no reason for us to go out of our way to avoid doing it, either."
Barbara Wallraff, Word Court
- " Since we hate to force prepositions apart from their objects, the most graceful sentences don't end with prepositions.
But prepositions and their objects should not be unnaturally forced together, either"
Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax
Constance Hale also quoted Winston Churchill's famous statement that poked fun at pedants who objected to prepositions at the end of sentences.
" This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."
- Patricia T. O'Connor in Woe Is I , refers to the rule about prepositions at the end of a sentence as a tombstone that should R.I.P. She puts her finger on the man who started that stupid rule, Robert Lowth, an eighteenth century clergyman who wrote a grammar book. He made the rule up because that's the way it is in Latin! But it never belonged in the English language.
The manuscript of one of the Grammar Doctor's books was sent out to readers to evaluate. Several of them objected to grammatical errors in the manuscript. Naturally the Grammar Doctor was offended by that objection. What the readers objected to was the prepositions at the end of sentences. These were left in deliberately to make the language of the book more natural and conversational. The Grammar Doctor wanted to avoid the stuffy, pompous, dry style of so many text books.
Unfortunately, the editor agreed with the pedantic readers, so you won't find any sentences in the book that end with prepositions.
Formal or informal
back to prepositions