prepositions

prepositions
   Anyone who believes that it is wrong to end a sentence with a preposition-and there are still some who do-is about a century out of touch. The "rule" was enshrined by one Robert Lowth, an eighteenth-century Anglican Bishop of London and gentleman grammarian. In his wildly idiosyncratic but curiously influential Short Introduction to English Grammar, Lowth urged his readers not to end sentences with prepositions if they could decently avoid it. Too many people took him much too literally, and for a century and a half the notion held sway. Today, happily, it is universally dismissed as a pointless affectation. Indeed, in many sentences the preposition could scarcely come anywhere but at the end: "This bed hasn't been slept in"; "What is the world coming to?"; "I don't know what you are talking about."

Dictionary of troublesome word. . 2013.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Prépositions — Préposition Voir « préposition » sur le Wiktionnaire …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Prepositions — ◊ GRAMMAR A preposition is a word like at , in , on , or with which is normally followed by a noun group, forming a prepositional phrase. The noun group after a preposition is sometimes called the prepositional object. Prepositions are often used …   Useful english dictionary

  • prepositions — ◊ GRAMMAR A preposition is a word like at , in , on , or with which is normally followed by a noun group, forming a prepositional phrase. The noun group after a preposition is sometimes called the prepositional object. Prepositions are often used …   Useful english dictionary

  • prepositions —  The lingering belief that sentences should not end with prepositions is entirely without foundation …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • prepositions — prep·o·si·tion || ‚prepÉ™ zɪʃn n. part of speech that serves to express the relationship between two words (Grammar) …   English contemporary dictionary

  • Spanish prepositions — Spanish language …   Wikipedia

  • List of English prepositions — This is a list of English prepositions. In English, some prepositions are short, typically containing five letters or fewer. There are, however, a significant number of multi word prepositions. Throughout the history of the English language, new… …   Wikipedia

  • Latvian prepositions — This article describes the use of prepositions and postpositions in Latvian grammar.The lists below are organized according to the case of the noun phrase following the preposition. In the plural, however, all prepositions in Latvian can be… …   Wikipedia

  • complex prepositions — Complex (or compound) prepositions consist of two or more words together having the function of a preposition, e.g. according to, apart from, in accordance with, with regard to. Fowler (1926) objected to their overuse in journalism, ‘stuffing up… …   Modern English usage

  • Old English prepositions — This is a list of prepositions in the Old English language. Many of them, particularlythose marked etc. , are found in other variant spellings. Prepositions may govern the accusative, genitive, dative or instrumental cases the question of which… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”