Is it wrong to end a sentence with preposition?

Is It Wrong to End

a Sentence With a

Preposition?

Question: Is It Wrong to End

a Sentence With a

Preposition?

Answer:

Quite simply, no. A

preposition is not a bad word

to end a sentence with. Even

in your grandparents' day a

preposition was not a bad

word to end a sentence with.

But ask a few of your friends

or colleagues if they

remember any rules of English

grammar, and almost

certainly at least one will say,

with confidence, "Never end a

sentence with a preposition."

Bryan Garner wasn't the first

to call that "rule" a

"superstition":

The spurious rule about

not ending sentences with

prepositions is a remnant

of Latin grammar, in

which a preposition was

the one word that a

writer could not end a

sentence with. But Latin

grammar should never

straightjacket English

grammar. If the

superstition is a "rule" at

all, it is a rule of rhetoric

and not of grammar, the

idea being to end

sentences with strong

words that drive a point

home. That principle is

sound, of course, but not

to the extent of meriting

lockstep adherence or

flouting established

idiom.

(Garner's Modern

American Usage, Oxford

University Press, 2003)

For over a century even hard-

core prescriptive grammarians

have rejected this old taboo:

Now that should be the end

of it, right? But just try

convincing that friend of

yours.

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