Trying to rephrase a sentence such as “There is nothing to be afraid of” so that you can avoid ending it with a preposition will leave you with an alternative that is less than ideal: “There is nothing of which to be afraid” strikes one as too formal, too far removed from conventional language, even that of academic prose. "Is he not a Novice," Fox wrote, "and Unmannerly, and an Ideot, and a Fool, that speaks You to one, which is not to be spoken to a singular, but to many?" Nonetheless, the idea that it is a rule is still held by many. Kim Bussing is a college-level composition and rhetoric instructor. OTHER SENTENCES ENDING WITH A PREPOSITION Again, nothing is wrong with these sentences, but that is not to say that you won't be forced to rearrange them to avoid a preposition at the end of a sentence. Delivered to your inbox! However, the first sentence sounds much less natural than the second sentence. Can I Start a Sentence with a Conjunction. Object found in Utah desert, recant — The Star Phoenix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), 25 September 2015. I have received many notes from correspondents claiming to know what the “original saying” was, but none of them cites an authoritative source. The FAQ goes on to say that the Oxford Companion to the English Language (no edition cited) states that the original was “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.” To me this sounds more likely, and eagerness to avoid the offensive word “bloody” would help to explain the proliferation of variations. The narrative context varies too: sometimes the person rebuked by Churchill is a correspondent, a speech editor, a bureaucrat, or an audience member at a speech and sometimes it is a man, sometimes a woman, and sometimes even a young student. Just because you can end your sentence with a preposition doesn’t always mean you should – rephrasing a sentence in accordance with this rule strikes a formal, even academic, tone. Since Churchill often contributed to The Strand, Zimmer argues, it would certainly have identified him if he had been the official in question. Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. As an Amazon Associate and a Bookshop.org Affiliate, QDT earns from qualifying purchases. No, it must not. The rest of us have pretty much moved on. Ending a sentence with a preposition such as "with," "of," and "to," is permissible in the English language. Compare: This is a problem I have not thought of. Why do both editorial and letter writers have to flagrantly split the infinitive? Not ending a sentence with a preposition is a bit of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put. From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. What did you put it on? 'Nip it in the butt' or 'Nip it in the bud'. Prepositions often deal with time and location, such as “behind,” “after,” or “over.”, It's useful to have a go-to rule for determining whether a given word is a preposition. In fact, the anti-preposition rule is largely a myth. Ben Zimmer has presented evidence on the alt.usage.english list that this story was not originally attributed to Churchill at all, but to an anonymous official in an article in The Strand magazine. Her popular LinkedIn Learning courses help people write better to communicate better. The word preposition is translated “position before”, or “to place before”. How to use a word that (literally) drives some pe... Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? I've read long arguments about why it's OK to end sentences with prepositions when the preposition isn't extraneous, but the driving point still seems to be “Normal people don't talk that way.”. So, you're ending a sentence with a preposition; and now you're wondering if it's grammatically correct to do so. For example, “What building is he in?” could easily be changed to: “He is in which building?”. A quick look at newspapers from the past year indicates that there are still a number of people who find the terminal preposition an abomination, enough so that they are willing—perhaps, one imagines, even eager—to write letters to the editor of any newspaper in which they find it. It should be, "Here's where we are". For instance, Noah Webster, in his 1784 book on grammar, took care to advise against separating prepositions "from the words which they govern." That is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put. Then there are those who get it so scrambled it comes out backward: I checked the indexes of a dozen Churchill biographies, but none of them had an entry for “prepositions.”. One famous example is Winston Churchill's declaration after someone criticized him for ending a sentence with a preposition: “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put!”, If, in the process of avoiding ending a sentence with a preposition, the sentence begins to sound awkward, overly formal, or confusing, then it's acceptable to ignore the preposition rule. Problem 3: Ending sentences with prepositions. When possible, try to rearrange the sentence The issue with ending a sentence with a preposition is more a matter of style or rhetoric than grammar. This is insubordination, up with which I will not put! The matter must therefore be settled, mustn’t it? Mignon Fogarty is the founder of Quick and Dirty Tips and the author of seven books on language, including the New York Times bestseller "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing." (Informal) This is a problem of which I have not thought. We are currently experiencing playback issues on Safari. Whistleblower changes tune, again, president-elect Sometimes it is possible to rewrite the sentence without the preposition. Ending a Sentence With a Preposition. Study Up With Our Official SCRABBLE Dictionary. It sounds pedantic. She is an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame, and the show is a five-time winner of Best Education Podcast in the Podcast Awards. However, it's unlikely that he ever said such a thing. For example, the prepositions “above,” “by,” and “over” all say something about a position in space; the prepositions “before,” “after,” and “since” all say something about time. It’s common knowledge that you can’t end a sentence with a preposition. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Here's an example of a sentence that can end with a preposition: What did you step on? The saying attributed to Winston Churchill rejecting the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition must be among the most frequently mutated witticisms ever. Supposedly an editor had clumsily rearranged one of Churchill’s sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition, and the Prime Minister, very proud of his style, scribbled this note in reply: “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” The American Heritage Book of English Usage agrees. Ending a sentence with a preposition such as "with," "of," and "to," is permissible in the English language. Why Does It Sound Weird to End a Sentence with a Contraction? Please understand that ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put. Unlike apostrophe usage, however, sticking closely to the preposition rule can sometimes make sentences clunky or confusing. Copyright © 2020 Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC. He did allow that "grammarians seem to allow of this mode of expression in conversation and familiar writings, but it is generally considered inelegant, and in the grave and sublime styles, is certainly inadmissible.". This is the sort of thing up with which I will not put. Back to list of errors. It would appear that some people are determined to hold on to this rule, no matter how many times they are informed that it really isn’t one.