Ending a sentence with a preposition
We've all heard the claim that we should never end a sentence with a preposition. However, this is one of those "rules" that is often misleading and sometimes downright incorrect. Fowler's Modern English Usage (Oxford University Press) has a wonderful, concise discussion of this, including:
"The superstition that a preposition should always precede the word it governs and should not end a sentence [as in What did you do it for?] seems to have developed from an observation of the 17c poet John Dryden, although Dryden himself did not always follow the rule in his own prose. It is not based on a real appreciation of the structure of English, which regularly separates words that are grammatically related."
These are some of Fowler's examples of "when it is either impossible or not natural" to avoid a final preposition:
(1) In relative clauses and questions featuring phrasal verbs:
What do you think she was up to?
The damage depends on where the budget cuts are coming from.
The right to fail is a right that's taken full advantage of.(2) In passive constructions: Even the apartment was paid for.
(3) In short sentences with a to-infinitive or verbal noun:
There are a couple of things I want to talk to you about.
Stained glass is a joy to look at.
Fowler's conclusion: "...especially in more formal writing, it is preferable to avoid placing a preposition at the end of a sentence where it might look stranded. In many other cases, and in conversational English generally, it is impossible to contrive the sentence in such a way as to avoid a final proposition without producing awkwardness or unnaturalness, and it is inadvisable to try."
My conclusion: There are instances where tucking the straggling preposition neatly into the sentence makes the sentence more clear and strong. There are many other instances where uprooting it disrupts the flow, creates stilted prose, or even changes the meaning slightly. Rules can be helpful for guidance, but not for one-size-fits-all dictating. Good writers and their betas strive to develop a balanced sense of both the science and the art of creative fiction.
"The superstition that a preposition should always precede the word it governs and should not end a sentence [as in What did you do it for?] seems to have developed from an observation of the 17c poet John Dryden, although Dryden himself did not always follow the rule in his own prose. It is not based on a real appreciation of the structure of English, which regularly separates words that are grammatically related."
These are some of Fowler's examples of "when it is either impossible or not natural" to avoid a final preposition:
(1) In relative clauses and questions featuring phrasal verbs:
What do you think she was up to?
The damage depends on where the budget cuts are coming from.
The right to fail is a right that's taken full advantage of.(2) In passive constructions: Even the apartment was paid for.
(3) In short sentences with a to-infinitive or verbal noun:
There are a couple of things I want to talk to you about.
Stained glass is a joy to look at.
Fowler's conclusion: "...especially in more formal writing, it is preferable to avoid placing a preposition at the end of a sentence where it might look stranded. In many other cases, and in conversational English generally, it is impossible to contrive the sentence in such a way as to avoid a final proposition without producing awkwardness or unnaturalness, and it is inadvisable to try."
My conclusion: There are instances where tucking the straggling preposition neatly into the sentence makes the sentence more clear and strong. There are many other instances where uprooting it disrupts the flow, creates stilted prose, or even changes the meaning slightly. Rules can be helpful for guidance, but not for one-size-fits-all dictating. Good writers and their betas strive to develop a balanced sense of both the science and the art of creative fiction.