The Verdict On Ending Sentences With Prepositions

This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 2 months ago by Mackeyser.

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July 15, 2015 at 5:49 pm #27295

zn
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Straight From The Editor’s Mouth: The Verdict On Ending Sentences With Prepositions

It happens all the time: we end sentences with prepositions and someone corrects us. But are they right to do so? What about when we painstakingly re-organize our sentences so that the prepositions are buried deep within them: are we wasting our time? Emily Brewster, Associate Editor for Merriam-Webster, gets to the root of the issue and comes to a surprising conclusion!

July 15, 2015 at 6:53 pm #27296
bnw
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Vindication at the 20 sec mark. I knew my english teacher was no better than a witch doctor besides.
- This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by bnw.
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July 15, 2015 at 7:19 pm #27299

zn
Moderator

bnw wrote:

Vindication at the 20 sec mark. I knew my english teacher was no better than a witch doctor besides.

It’s one of those things. It got TAKEN as a rule of grammar when it’s not. It’s a rule of style, that is, if you want to sound like your English is elite, then it becomes a style issue.

But it was never an issue of English GRAMMAR. As the vid says, English and its precursor languages have always used the terminal preposition. It’s latin where that doesn’t work grammatically. For a long time, though, latin was used as the model of correctness for english grammar. Which only means something in a world where the educated elites know latin and want to distance themselves from everyday usage.

..

July 16, 2015 at 11:12 am #27305

Zooey
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It is the same thing with the split infinitive. It literally can’t be done in Latin since infinitives are a single word.

John Dryden was to blame for some bad theatre, too. A pox on Dryden, I say.

July 18, 2015 at 12:14 am #27351

Mackeyser
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Well, as long as none of this leads to extended readings of Vogon poetry, I’m content to follow along.

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