Xref: utzoo rec.arts.tv.uk:2008 alt.peeves:1228 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!tale From: tale@cs.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence) Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.uk,alt.peeves Subject: Re: Correct English (was: Maaahsterpiece Theatere) Message-ID: Date: 19 Jan 90 07:58:16 GMT References: <1558@skye.ed.ac.uk> <2793@paperboy.OSF.ORG> Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY Lines: 16 In article <2793@paperboy.OSF.ORG> dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks) writes: > Mea culpa. My reference is a grammar checklist that I remember from > somewhere, in which the errors is illustrated within the rules: "Never > use a preposition to end a sentence with", that sort of thing. "This is something up with which I will not put." -- attributed to Winston Churchill It's a rather dumb rule which really doesn't exist as a rule of grammar in the strictest sense, at least according to my _Dictionary_ _of_Misinformation_. It is more a style rule than a grammar rule and sometimes the convolutions required to follow it leave a sentence sounding very unnatural. Peeve: people that chastise me for ending a sentence with a preposition in conversational speech.