{"id":1056,"date":"2015-04-11T10:03:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T22:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2015-04-11T10:03:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T22:03:58","slug":"to-end-a-sentence-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1056","title":{"rendered":"To end a sentence with?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Preposition\"<\/a>One of my vivid memories of life in the First Form was a pin board that displayed \u2018Work we are proud of.\u2019<\/p>\n

As I recall, it was covered with rather indifferent prose written by people who, nevertheless, had neat (and prescribed) handwriting.\u00a0 My own handwriting was somewhat unconventional \u2013 it still is \u2013 and so my own attempts at English Composition failed at the first hurdle \u2013 at least in the eyes of \u2018the Duchess of Room One\u2019.<\/p>\n

After three or four weeks of failing to make the cut, I raised my hand at the beginning of the class.<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes, Jack?\u2019 The Duchess said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Are you entirely happy with that heading?\u2019 I asked.<\/p>\n

The Duchess frowned and, for what seemed like a very long time, peered at the questioned caption.\u00a0 Eventually she nodded and said: \u2018Yes, I see what you mean.\u2019\u00a0 And while she wrote a new caption \u2013 in her own immaculate and prescribed handwriting \u2013 she asked: \u2018And what is wrong with the current caption?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018A sentence is something we should never end a sentence with,\u2019 I said.\u00a0 (I was a smart arse even in those far off days.)<\/p>\n

\u2018Correct.\u2019<\/p>\n

Of course, it was not correct then.\u00a0 And it is not correct now. \u00a0If you want to end a sentence with a preposition, go ahead.\u00a0 Be my guest.\u00a0 Ninety-something percent of your readers won\u2019t even notice.\u00a0 But some will.\u00a0 And therein lies the problem.<\/p>\n

As with most grammar \u2018rules\u2019, the prohibition against ending a sentence with a preposition comes about because Dryden and several of his successors persuaded their publishers to publish lists of their personal<\/em> preferences.\u00a0 That said, even today there are some readers who are distracted by prepositions at the end of sentences.\u00a0 It causes them to stumble.\u00a0 It causes them to think about the construction rather than the message.<\/p>\n

If you know that some in your audience are likely to be pedantic fuddy-duddies, perhaps you should rearrange your sentence.\u00a0 Otherwise, a preposition is a perfectly good word to end a sentence with.\u00a0 (Sorry, Your Grace.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my vivid memories of life in the First Form was a pin board that displayed \u2018Work we are proud of.\u2019 As I recall, it was covered with rather indifferent prose written by people who, nevertheless, had neat (and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1058,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}