Originally posted August 2006. I am bringing it forward rather than reposting it because the comments were pretty good.
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An attorney at a hearing I testified at today made a statement, then reworded it swiftly to get the preposition off the end of the sentence. He chuckled, looked at me and asked "Is that correct?" I assured him that either was correct, and that the rules are different now. He asked later what I meant by that, and I couldn't find the words for my thought for about a minute. I settled on something like this:
"Compromising clarity of speech for the sake of a suspect rule is now considered pedantic rather than correct.""Don't end with a preposition" was a rule artificially imposed on English anyway, and has caused much infelicity. Vestiges of it will hang on for a century, but you may stop worrying about it anymore.
Yeah, but some of us really LIKE being pedantic...
ReplyDelete---BubbaB
Amen, brother
ReplyDeleteNot to worry, pops. They didn't even teach me what preposition was when I went to school.
ReplyDeleteAt least, I think they didn't.
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ReplyDeleteI've actually been intentionally finishing sentences with prepositions for about 3 months now, in the hopes that a pedant will call me on it, and I can have a grammar argument.
ReplyDelete"That is a species of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put!" -- Winston Churchill, upon being reprimanded by a civil servant for ending a sentence with a preposition.
ReplyDelete"What did you bring that book I don't want to be read to out of up for?" -- an unnamed prepubescent female, clearly determined to test the limits of the newly relaxed rules, to her father.
Churchill and Twain agree with you. Pedantics need to go to another topic to rant on.
ReplyDeleteIrregardless of the rule it depends on what you're going for.
ReplyDelete