Can I end a sentence with a preposition? Well, yes and no. The old school rule that you cannot end a sentence with a preposition has some validity, but it has also been mocked by personages high and low. Allegedly, for example, Winston Churchill said, "That is something up with which I will not put."
The practical solution is to try removing the preposition from the end of the sentence. If it changes the meaning of the sentence, put it back. If you can move the preposition to another place in the sentence, try that. If it sounds really odd and convoluted, put it back at the end. Finally, if you have a preposition at the end, and you try moving it and are pleased with the result, leave it in its new position.
Here are examples to try out (or to simply try). As always,feel free to send your examples to us.
- Our office does not use these old-style floppy disks any more. I think we should throw them out.
- What will the meeting be about?
- Whom am I speaking to?
- I informed the client where the meeting is at.
- Which tunnel are we going through?
- This is a reminder that the east building is the one we are going to.
***
After I read John M. Widen's entry for last week's challenge, I realized that no more need be said:
- black coffee cup
- Please wash my black-coffee cup. Someone put cream in it.
- cheap jug wine
- If I decanted my wine into an inexpensive ceramic container, I might refer to it as my cheap-jug wine.
- long range plan
- My long range-plan for the rifle club was written on a roll of butcher paper.
- orange sofa pillow
- I chose lime green for the orange-sofa pillow. Of course I have no taste in colors or syntax.
- free range chicken
- Any poultry that escapes the rifle club might be called free range-chicken, or not.
- broken CD tower
- I should throw those old disks away instead of storing them in my broken-CD tower.
- grape seed oil
- It's easier to plant new vineyards if you lubricate the planter with grape seed-oil.
- orange juice maker
- While celebrating Holi in Mumbai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi) we bought drinks from the orange juice-maker.
- lower back pain
- I have lower-back pain so I engaged a chiropractor who promised to lower back-pain.
- red leaf lettuce
- There is a head-forming red-leaf lettuce but I prefer the taste of red leaf-lettuce.
And here are the correct answers sent to me by Ginny Supranowitz:
- black coffee cup
- cheap jug wine
- long-range plan
- orange sofa pillow
- free-range chicken
- broken CD tower
- grape-seed oil
- orange-juice maker
- lower back pain (I think lower-back could be hyphenated, but we all know what it means without the hyphen.)
- red-leaf lettuce
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