ANSWER: "Is it okay to end a sentence with a preposition?"
Happy first day of June, fandom grammar watchers! We're going to kick off this month by tackling one of the most commonly asked questions about English grammatical rules:
“Is it okay to end a sentence with a preposition?”
( To understand this answer, you'll first need to understand the importance of English sentence structure.... )
“Is it okay to end a sentence with a preposition?”
( To understand this answer, you'll first need to understand the importance of English sentence structure.... )
Comments 2
In your examples, the preposition and its related verb stay together, which does make the meaning clear.
In speaking, we often separate the two: "He filled the barrel all the way up." That's rarely misunderstood in speaking, because vocal inflection helps us follow the speaker's ideas. But when reading -- particularly a more complex sentence than that one (but it's all I can think of) -- the split between verb and preposition at the end can necessitate rereading the sentence to grasp the meaning.
(Or, I dunno; maybe I'm a bit slow on the uptake.) But I've done enough checking back when I hit that construction to see it as a problem. So when I catch myself writing a sentence like that, I change it to: "He filled up the barrel all the way."
It's a natural construction, because we often speak that way, but it seems like it can create a small ripple in the smooth reading flow. So when I write or beta, I make sure the verb and preposition are together, whether in the middle or at the end of the sentence.
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However, there are always exceptions. One such exception is when you have a narrator who speaks naturally since, as you noted, a lot of people naturally split the action and preposition while speaking. The best thing you can do is just write your sentence, reread it with voice and clarity in mind, and change it if the prose negatively affects either, which it sounds like you're already doing. ^^
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