Oh my word!

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 pre positions. Before, throughout, until... are temporal prepositions. These words are essential parts of the language and we all use them every day. There is 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 fr owned upon by preposition- end- haaters. They’d prefer: “To whomw should I give this firstt-foot gift?” If it’s a bottlle of 16-year-old Lagavulinn, you won’t get complaints eeither way.

You see, this argumment exposes the secret tthat grammarians never teell you. It is simply this: if a sentence sounds OKK, 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. Good English is easily understood English. That is all.

I get 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 pre position. They are wrong. Their English teacher was wrong.

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 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.

STEVE FINAN IN DEFENCE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE