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Picture of shufitz
posted
    The grammar has a rule absurd
    Which I would call an outworn myth:
    A preposition is a word
    You mustn't end a sentence with!
    — Berton Braley
We've mentioned this elsewhere. Can we dig up some amusing examples? Big Grin
 
Posts: 2666 | Location: Chicago, IL USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
English grammar I thought was down pat
But now Shufitz makes me smell a rat.
Prepositions aren't fine
AT the end of a line?
Then tell me, just where is it at?
 
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Picture of Kalleh
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My favorite is Winston Churchill's famous quote that we all know of (though I must introduce it to my editor, who literally laughs when people end a sentence with a preposition). On the other hand, I found this on the Web, which says Churchill never actually rejected the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition. It says
quote:
I checked the indexes of a dozen Churchill biographies, but none of them had an entry for “prepositions.”


Ben Zimmer has presented evidence on the alt.usage.english list that this story was not originally attributed to Churchill at all, but to an anonymous official in an article in The Strand magazine. Since Churchill often contributed to The Strand, Zimmer argues, it would certainly have identified him if he had been the official in question. It is not clear how the anecdote came to be attributed to Churchill by Gowers, but it seems to have circulated independently earlier.
Does anyone know if Churchill actually said, "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."?
 
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Picture of BobHale
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We have discussed this before and located this debunking.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Picture of Kalleh
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Somehow I missed this. Very interesting, particularly that the Chicago Tribune not only was linked, but apparently blew it!
 
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