Asked by Dingle
the following famous quote by Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain in the mid-twentieth century:
"Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."
Use a reference guide or a website dedicated to writing and grammar to learn about using a preposition at the end of a sentence. Find out when it's acceptable or unacceptable to use a preposition at the end of a sentence and, if possible, how you can avoid ending a sentence with a preposition. Based on your research, answer the following questions.
Question 1
What is the rule about ending a sentence with a preposition?
All Answers 1
Answered by
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Short answer
- The old prescriptive rule says you should not end a sentence with a preposition.
- Modern usage guides and grammarians treat that prohibition as unnecessary: ending a sentence with a preposition is perfectly acceptable in ordinary English and often sounds more natural. Only in very formal or rhetorical contexts do writers sometimes prefer to avoid it.
Explanation (concise)
- Origin: The prohibition comes from 18th‑century grammarians who modeled English on Latin (in Latin prepositions cannot be “stranded”), and from older editions of usage guides.
- Modern view: Most contemporary authorities (Chicago Manual of Style, Fowler’s modern discussions, Merriam‑Webster, Cambridge and Oxford notes on usage, Purdue OWL, Garner’s commentary) say that “preposition stranding” is grammatical and often preferable for natural style.
- Practical rule of thumb: Use sentence‑final prepositions when they make the sentence clear and natural; rephrase (e.g., “to whom,” “in which”) only when you need a more formal tone or the rephrasing isn’t awkward.
If you want, I can give short examples of acceptable vs. needlessly awkward rewrites and show when rephrasing helps.
- The old prescriptive rule says you should not end a sentence with a preposition.
- Modern usage guides and grammarians treat that prohibition as unnecessary: ending a sentence with a preposition is perfectly acceptable in ordinary English and often sounds more natural. Only in very formal or rhetorical contexts do writers sometimes prefer to avoid it.
Explanation (concise)
- Origin: The prohibition comes from 18th‑century grammarians who modeled English on Latin (in Latin prepositions cannot be “stranded”), and from older editions of usage guides.
- Modern view: Most contemporary authorities (Chicago Manual of Style, Fowler’s modern discussions, Merriam‑Webster, Cambridge and Oxford notes on usage, Purdue OWL, Garner’s commentary) say that “preposition stranding” is grammatical and often preferable for natural style.
- Practical rule of thumb: Use sentence‑final prepositions when they make the sentence clear and natural; rephrase (e.g., “to whom,” “in which”) only when you need a more formal tone or the rephrasing isn’t awkward.
If you want, I can give short examples of acceptable vs. needlessly awkward rewrites and show when rephrasing helps.
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