How to Fix a Preposition at the End of a Sentence

Forums: Grammar, English, Esl
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"That is exactly what I was looking for."

I was taught that a preposition at the end of a sentence is incorrect grammar. However, this how many people talk and the message is understood.

1. Is the above sentence still incorrect?
2. How do I fix it?
3. What methodology can I use to fix sentences that have prepositions at the end of them?

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Type: Question • Score: 8 • Views: 3,808 • Replies: 14

[+3] - jespah - 11/21/2014I'm not disagreeing with you. And spoken language is different from written. Writing dialog in a story, for example, allows for tons of leeway. The poster just wanted to know how to change the...

@jasonnicholson,

Don't fix what ain't broken.

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@jasonnicholson,

This is what we've all been looking for.

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@Frank Apisa,

Or as Churchill might have said, "Worrying about prepositions at the end of a sentence is the kind of grammar up with which I will not put."

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@jasonnicholson,

That is exactly for what I was looking.

(I am the grammarian about whom your mother warned you.)

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@jasonnicholson,

It's not bad. The preposition at the end of a sentence thing is something to be avoided, but for clarity and brevity's sake, I think it's fine.

You can avoid this issue with improved word choice, e. g. That is exactly what I wanted. Or That is exactly what I was seeking.

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@jespah,

Quote:

I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

I disagree with you Jespah. There are times when ending a sentence with a preposition is the best way to express a thought or a feeling. Put me in the "it's a stupid rule, let's just ignore it" camp.

Changing the wording around is not a good solution. It changes the feeling of the sentence. The phrase "I still haven't found what I am looking for" is not the same in emotion or even in meaning as "I still haven't found what I am seeking". These rules lessen the utility of the language.

When grammar rules directly contradict the way the language is actually commonly used, the grammar rules should be dropped. And, this is a particularly stupid grammar rule.

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@maxdancona,

Song writing is different (as is poetry). It requires scansion. And I didn't say it was the rule at all - I just said he could avoid it and go with a different word.

1 Reply

@jespah,

I don't think he can go a different word without changing the emotion and/or meaning of the sentence.

When I find a cool shirt in a store I will, in my happiness, say "Hey! that's exactly what I am looking for!". That sentence is perfect. It expresses the meaning and the emotion perfectly. There is not any better way to express that. Any other wording of this phrase changes it.

If I say "Hey! that's exactly what I am seeking" or "Hey! that's exactly for what I am looking", it isn't going to express the same idea or feeling.

The reason sentences in the form of "That's exactly what I looking for." are so common in everyday English is that they are very useful.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

This is my favorite example of prepositional silliness.

Paid for the house had not been, so they had to sell it.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

I'm not disagreeing with you.

And spoken language is different from written. Writing dialog in a story, for example, allows for tons of leeway. The poster just wanted to know how to change the sentence. I gave him a couple of means of doing it.

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I read somewhere recently that using a preposition at the end of a sentence has been considered ok grammar for at least five decades. I've also read that before in other articles, and I've probably read it on a2k before. Many of us were taught in our youth that such usage is a "no no", so there are still large numbers of people that think it is ungrammatical and are teaching others that it is. I often save articles in my computer files. If I find that I saved back up for this, I'll post it.

At the least, the matter is being argued somewhere as we speak. Or write.

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@jasonnicholson,

So how would you fix this sentence: "What do you think this book is about?"

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@familyofhorns,

Quote:

So how would you fix this sentence: "What do you think this book is about?"

Maybe something like: "What's up with this here book?"

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English ain't Latin. It's about time we stopped trying to pretend that it fits Latin grammar.

Quote:

The whole notion about “dangling” prepositions traces back to a tossed-off remark by poet John Dryden in 1672, although what seems to have truly set the “rule” in stone is A Short Introduction to English Grammar, penned by Robert Lowth, an eighteenth- century bishop in London. Sober and pithy, this book happened to catch on and be used in classrooms into the early 1900s. Neither Dryden nor Lowth actually specified what was so wrong with prepositions coming last, but both were guided by an idea popular among writerly people of their era that good grammar was Latin-style, even in languages that aren’t Latin. Latin happens not to dangle its prepositions. However, Arabic doesn’t either, and few would espouse beginning our sentences with verbs the way the language of the Koran does...

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113187/grumpy-grammarian-dangling-preposition-myth

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How to Fix a Preposition at the End of a Sentence

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