WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!

Just do it! Dangle a few prepositions

The late, great Sir Winston Churchill was knighted in 1953.
The late, great Sir Winston Churchill was knighted in 1953.

I'm going to be bold today, even though I know many readers will disagree with what I say.

I am here to tell you that ending a sentence in a preposition is OK.

It's the truth.

Many people think that such a practice is a flagrant grammar violation. But professional grammarians do not back this up. (See what I did there?)

Prepositions are words that describe location, time or condition. Examples are about, over, under, off, behind, except, of, at, between and to.

I'm not saying you should end sentences this way with abandon. If you can find a better way to write a sentence without leaving the preposition at the end, by all means do so.

Awkward: Where are you at?

Better: Where are you?

Awkward: Could you turn the light off?

Better: Could you turn off the light?

But in some cases, you have to do it.

This is what Theodore M. Bern­stein said in The Careful Writer in 1965 (as well as in later editions):

"It is well to consider that a sentence ending with a preposition is sometimes clumsy, often weak." But, at times, "a preposition can itself provide strength at the end of a sentence."

To bring it home, Bernstein says that anyone who says all such usage is wrong will find that he "hasn't a leg on which to stand."

British statesman Winston Churchill is known for objecting to a change that an editor had made to a sentence because it ended in a preposition. Reports of Churchill's response vary, but he said something like, "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."

And think about a famous repetitious phrase from a speech by Churchill:

Never give in.

How would one say that without the preposition at the end?

In is something you should never give.

What did you choke on?

Doesn't it sound silly to say:

On what did you choke?

Awkward: The judge will decide with which parent the child will live.

Better: The judge will decide which parent the child will live with.

Awkward: If I want to make the color purple, with what do I mix the blue?

Better: If I want to make the color purple, what do I mix the blue with?

Bernstein said, "If by trying to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition you have seemed to twist words out of their normal order and have created a pompous-sounding locution, abandon the effort."

I want to stress that many people strongly oppose ending a sentence with a preposition. Avoid doing so if you're writing a resume or a cover letter. Wait until you get the job to educate your boss about this Bernstein stuff.

Sources: The Careful Writer by Theodore M. Bernstein, The Associated Press Stylebook, Grammar Girl, M-W.com, Woe Is I by Patricia T. O'Conner, Rich "The Grammar Mudge" Turner (1937-2011), "Prepositions" at bit.ly/2fXlX3g

Reach Bernadette at

bkwordmonger@gmail.com

ActiveStyle on 11/14/2016

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