Prepositions are different than other parts of speech. (2) If the preposition-ending sentence creates just the tone and emphasis you want, do it. What should we do? Geraldine Woods has more than 35 years of teaching experience. Some people see such constructions as obfuscation (I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an article about it on this very website), and your shorter version is certainly harder for non-native speakers to understand. An easy test to help reduce the number of prepositions is to search for the genitive case, or a possessive form: If a sentence could use the genitive case but doesn’t, revise the sentence. >> Mary threw John the ball. I am looking forward to seeing more subjects like this especially those concerning the use of articles, relative clauses….etc. Before coming to the MLA, she worked as a freelance copyeditor, translator, and German-language teacher. (two magazines only). In the writer’s toolbox, adverbs are stronger tools than prepositional phrases. In any writing endeavor, one must consider the audience. As I eventually learned, however, the choice to end a sentence with a preposition is just that: a choice, not an error to be avoided at all costs. Silver Partners refused to join any venture if Hooper was part of it. Replace prepositional phrases with adverbs (similar to #2) Shifting from passive voice to active voice, as in the … Home Frank kicked a field goal for his screaming fans. Writers and editors aid clarity and conciseness by uncovering nominalizations, otherwise known as buried, or smothered, verbs. Here’s a sentence in which than is used correctly: Did you notice the subject-verb pairs? Ex: A number of people >> Some people. To where did he disappear? It’s always possible to avoid ending with a preposition, and avoiding has no risk. That realization alone leads to some easy decisions. We invite you to comment on this post and exchange ideas with other site visitors. Here’s an example of the same strategy: The deponent could not recall in which folder she saved the file. One reason for these stilted sentences is that we know other legal writers believe the supposed rule, and we don’t want to risk annoying those readers or, worse, seeming semi-literate. Some common preposition problems include choosing between different from and different than, or whether to use between or among. End a sentence with a preposition if you need to. Copyright © 2020 Daily Writing Tips . In fact, I … Attached are three local rules of which you should be aware. Were you taught that a preposition should never be placed at the end of a sentence? Prepositions are small words but they give English speakers big headaches. 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. Use indirect objects rather than prepositional phrases Unless the audience objects, an occasional ending preposition is acceptable. We know it’s okay to end with a preposition, but we also know some of our readers don’t know it’s okay, so we avoid doing it, perpetuating the no-ending-preposition practice. Misusing prepositions is an easy problem to fix. “Freedom From, Freedom To: Yes, You Can End a Sentence in a Preposition.” The New Republic, 17 May 2013, newrepublic.com/article/113187/grumpy-grammarian-dangling-preposition-myth. I am a grammar nut and firmly believe that a sentence or thought should never end with a preposition. This is exactly the kind of job that editors are perfectly suited to carry out – they come to the page fresh, not having read the same misused preposition fifty times, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. I was checking references on the web and ran into one which disagrees with my thinking. Heartfelt thanks for this interesting subject. Were you taught that a preposition should never be placed at the end of a sentence? If you’re writing for someone who loves to tsk-tsk about the decline and fall of proper English, avoid placing a preposition at the end of a sentence. reCAPTCHA helps prevent automated form spam. That said, I cannot figure out how to reword the following sentence. Remove prepositional phrases by using adjectives You can stop reading right here because now you have all the information you need. You’ve probably heard (and maybe used) the expression different than lots of times. "Cannot" vs. "Can Not": What's The Difference? And another: or so I thought. The writing of tenured professors reflected a similar imprudence . Most of us would never speak these stiff, over-formal versions: About whom are you talking? I’m not sure when, or from whom, I first learned this apparently incontrovertible truth, but it stuck with me throughout my graduate-school years. Thanks for this piece! If you think there’s a rule against ending with a preposition, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
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