Can you end a sentence with a preposition?

There are numerous myths relating to grammatical dos and don’ts, many of which were
drummed into us at school. The one that stubbornly refuses to budge from my mind is the
diktat ‘never start a sentence with a conjunction such as and or but’. Another one is that one
cannot end a sentence with a preposition. Let’s try to zap the one – sometimes referred to as
stranded prepositions – and lay it to rest once and for all.

A prepositional primer
First, a quick recap of the basics:
 A preposition is a word such as with, by, on, in, at, to, or about.
 Prepositions are a class of word used to express the relationship between the elements of a
sentence or clause.
 A preposition connects a verb, noun, or adjective to a noun or pronoun and is typically, but
not always, found before the noun or pronoun in a sentence or clause. For example:

PAUL RAN ALONG THE STREET.

verb preposition noun

HE’S ANGRY WITH US.

adjective preposition pronoun

 The noun or pronoun that follows the preposition forms a ‘prepositional object’ (or
complement). You should therefore use pronouns in the objective (for instance, me, her,
him, us) rather than the subjective form (I, she, he, we).
 The relationship between the preposition and the other elements can describe:
– time (we’re meeting him on Tuesday)
– the way in which something is done (I went to Milan bytrain)
– place or position (the cat was under the table; we met at the station)
– possession (a friend of mine)
– purpose (the operation was done for the best of reasons)

Latin-obsessed 17th century introverts…

Some of these groundless rules (termed ‘fetishes’ by Henry Fowler in 1926) have a long
history. Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, some notable writers (aka Latin-obsessed
17thcentury introverts) tried to make English grammar conform to that of Latin – hence the
veto on split infinitives as well as the current preposition confusion.
The word ‘preposition’ ultimately derives from Latin prae‘before’ and ponere ’to place’. In
Latin grammar, the rule is that a preposition should always precede the prepositional object
that it is linked with: it is never placed after it. According to a number of other authorities,
it was the dramatist John Dryden in 1672 who was the first person to criticize a piece of
English writing (by Ben Jonson) for placing a preposition at the end of a clause instead of
before the noun or pronoun to which it was linked.
 This prohibition was taken up by grammarians and teachers in the next two centuries and
became very tenacious. English is not Latin, however, and contemporary authorities do not
try to shoehorn it into the Latin model. Nevertheless, many people are still taught that
ending a sentence or clause with a preposition should be avoided.

This is the sort of English up with which I will not put!

Although Ben Zimmer seems to have laid to rest the myththat the above witticism can be
attributed to Winston Churchill, the quote illustrates that trying to avoid a stranded
preposition could lead you to get your linguistic knickers in a terrible twist.
In fact, there are four main types of situation in which it is more natural to end a sentence or
clause with a preposition:
 passive structures (she enjoys being fussed over)
 relative clauses (they must be convinced of the commitment that they are taking on)
 infinitive structures (Tom had no-one to play with)
 questions beginning with who, where, what, etc. (what music are you interested in?)
Most attempts to avoid stranding or deferring prepositions in the following examples end
up sounding over-formal, awkward, or like Yoda in Star Wars:

STRANDED PREPOSITION BEFORE

PREPOSITION NOUN OR PRONOUN

Gail has much to be Gail has much about which to be

happy about. happy. [over-formal]

Martin persuaded Lucy that there Martin persuaded Lucy that there
was nothing to be frightened of. was nothing of which to be
frightened. [over-formal]

The house hadn’t been paid for, Paid for the house had not been, so
so they had to sell it. they had to sell it. [not good
English]

Who were you talking to? To whom were you talking? [over-
formal]

The tennis match was rained off. Rained off the tennis match was.
[not good English]

He wondered where she had He wondered from where she had

come from. come. [over-formal]

She often said things that were She often said things that were
inappropriate, but think of the inappropriate, but she was under a
 pressure she was under. great deal of pressure. [less
emphatic]
To sum up, the deferring of prepositions sounds perfectly natural and is part of standard
English. Once you start moving the prepositions to their supposed ‘correct’ positions you
find yourself with very stilted or even impossible sentences. Well-established and famous
writers over the years, such as George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Julian Barnes, have
been blithely stranding their prepositions to no ill effect: please feel free to go and end a
sentence with a preposition!