This is the type of preposition argument up with which I will not put

By Steve Finan

January 3 2021, 12:00pm

Let’s start the year with a disagreement over a grammatical rule that I’ve often had to put up with. An argument people like me regularly refer to. A debate we always seem to head towards. A dispute we can’t get away from. This is, I must say, not a rule I adhere to.

Is it acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition?

What is a preposition? It is a word that explains physical, or time specific, position. Under, to, in, above . . . are physical prepositions. Before, throughout, until . . . are temporal prepositions. These words are essential parts of the language and we all use them every day. There is nothing special about them, no mystery to them.

And there certainly isn’t anything wrong in ending a sentence with one.

My opening paragraph contains five sentences, each ending with a preposition. A couple are somewhat clunky (especially “A debate we always seem to head towards”) but none are so villainous that they’d frighten the horses.

Many sentences flow perfectly naturally with a preposition at the end. “Who should I give this first-foot gift to?” would be frowned upon by preposition-end-haters. They’d prefer: “To whom should I give this first-foot gift?” If it’s a bottle of 16-year-old Lagavulin, you won’t get complaints either way.

You see, this argument exposes the big secret that grammarians almost never tell you. It is simply this: if a sentence sounds OK, it’s probably OK.

I’d like to remove the idea that good English usage is the preserve of Oxbridge linguists who read dusty tomes seeking to perfect their understanding of imperfect participles, and who worry over the order of subject, object, and verb in a sentence. They don’t own the language. Everyone can use English well. Good English is easily understood English. That is all.

I get rather exercised about people using words they don’t know the meaning of, and mangled idioms, misplaced apostrophes, and bad spelling. I’m a terrible pedant, I freely admit. But if I see plain, simple English I enjoy it for what it is.

Now there will be those among you shaking your heads, convinced I am misguided on this point because an English teacher once told them never to end a sentence with a preposition. They are wrong. Their English teacher was wrong. And it is a disservice to the language to perpetuate this prepositions myth.

Still don’t believe me? Take a leaf through the venerable Fowler’s English Usage, or Current English Usage by Wood, Flavell, and Flavell, or (a favourite book of mine) Sir Ernest Gowers’ Plain Words to see what they say about ending sentences with prepositions.

This is the type of English up with which I will not put.