 Drama: March 23, 2022 Issue [#11257] |
This week: The Drama of Prepositions Edited by: Lilli 🧿 ☕  
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| The best-known rule about prepositions is that you shouldn't end a sentence with one. And that rule is absolutely correct—if you're speaking Latin. It seems that this superstitious rule dates back to 18th Century English grammar books that based their rules on Latin grammar. |
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How many of us have been told by teachers or reviewers, "don't end your sentence with a preposition"?
Well, I'm here to tell you it's a completely fake 'grammar rule' and I have a couple of examples for you.
Winston Churchill is apocryphally said to have mocked this rule with the wonderfully awkward sentence, "This is a thing up with which I will not put”. Interestingly enough, the natural way to say that sentence also ends in a preposition: This is the sort of thing I won't put up with. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Imagine that!
Here's another example. In 1672 author John Dryden criticized fellow author, playwright Ben Johnson for ending his sentences in prepositions calling it a "common fault with him". This is because Dryden wanted English grammar to parallel Latin grammar, but in Latin, sentences cannot end in prepositions. So the English/Latin comparison is bogus.
This complaint about prepositions proliferated through the culture, giving the kind of people who write letters to the editor, even more to complain about. The whole uproar over ending sentences with a preposition is just a 350-year-old pet peeve. Linguists and usage guides all agree that the terminal preposition is fine.
If you don't like to end your sentences with prepositions, you don't have to—just don't say that it is a rule. And if you like to end your sentences with a succinct with, go right ahead and keep doing so—just don't quote Winston Churchill when someone says that you shouldn't. |
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