Ending a Sentence with a Preposition - Merriam-Webster Ask the Editor

An old-fashioned rule we can no longer put up with. See more videos at http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/index.htm

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[clavidor12121]

These vids are crack-cocaine equivalents to logophiles -- pithy, fun times which end in acute withdrawal.

[dbuschhorn]

Turn switch up to on, down to off. Can you feel that, Grammar? Does it sting? Ended that sentence in SIX PREPOSITIONS! Catch phrase!

[Aeschylus]

In our sister-language German you can only say "that's the house in which I live" ("das ist das Haus, in dem ich wohne"), but in our other sister-language Icelandic (Old Norse), you can only say "that's the house that I live in" ("það er húsið sem ég búa í").

In English we can have either, but I've seen (heard) how unnatural it can be not to end with a preposition when asked by telemarketers "with whom am I speaking with?"

[NumbFlynn]

@dbuschhorn On and off hardly count as prepositions when used this way :P

[shammadamma]

@Ylirymiry

Webster is doing no such thing. They're merely separating actual grammar rules from silly grammar myths -- and this is an example of the latter. The entire notion of the rule is predicated on the fact that you can't end a sentence with a preposition *in Latin.* English is not Latin.

[intermaniax1]

My prof:"David, never end your sentence with a preposition

Me

watch?v=toxIiMWQgKA

[ChazMyTube]

My favorite is when people go the effort of "Whom did you go to school with?" getting the pronoun correct and leaving the preposition dangling off the end, to fend for itself?

Makes Van Gogh want to bite his other ear off?

Perhaps, giving it a little thought, it could be recast as, "Who attended school with you?" ~sCz

[fernank017]

So, this is where the grammar nazis meet...

[Ashtar94]

@99davidpaul They *are* helping us improve the quality of our writing -- by distinguishing real rules of English from superstitions. We do not improve the quality of our writing by avoiding the terminal preposition, because there's nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition (especially when there's an object to the preposition right in the sentence). That's the point.

[99davidpaul]

"Give them what they requested." That doesn't sound weird and avoids the terminal preposition. Come on Merriam-Webster, shouldn't you be promoting the use of your famous dictionaries and thesaruses to improve the quality of our writing?

[curtismason111]

Apparently, sentence fragments are also okay, judging from the description.