The rule has been repeated over time by various grammarians, but language authorities since the 20th century have overwhelmingly rejected it, and few serious writers ever followed it consistently. But there’s no good reason for English to follow the rules of a dead language from which it differs in many ways. In Latin, a sentence can never end with a preposition.īecause Latin was seen as a more prestigious language than English, they assumed that imitating its rules would also result in more elegant English writing. They based their objection to preposition stranding on Latin grammar. The rule is generally attributed to the 17th-century writers Joshua Poole and John Dryden. According to supporters of this rule, it should only appear directly before its object (e.g., “for what”). The “stranded” preposition might appear at the end of the sentence, at the end of a clause, or anywhere else separated from its object. Strictly speaking, the issue is not with placing the preposition at the end but with separating it from its object.įor example, in “What are you preparing for?” the preposition “for” is separated from its object “what.” This is what people who object to preposition stranding don’t like. Placing a preposition at the end of a sentence is also called preposition stranding or a sentence-terminal preposition. When it’s a real problem: Dangling prepositions.How to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition.
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