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Posts Tagged ‘preposition’

Everyone’s heard that you should never end a sentence with a preposition, but how many of you know why? The reason is that back at a time when Latin was considered that best and most noble language, and English a crude language of the uneducated, English grammarians decided that since Latin didn’t end sentences in prepositions, English shouldn’t either. They ignored the fact that it’s impossible to end a sentence in Latin with a preposition and still have it make any sense. English on the other hand, as a Germanic language makes extensive use of verb preposition combinations (turn off, listen in, put up with, etc.) Denying English speakers the ability to end sentences with a preposition when the verb/preposition compound calls for it makes no sense – and prompted the above outburst from that master of the English language, Winston Churchill.