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Good Spelling and Grammar Question

Where did the "never end a sentence in a preposition" thing come from?

I understand that "Where are toi at?" is wrong and doesn't sound right, but I've come across many sentences before that sound perfectly fine ending in a preposition...For instance "Which store are toi inside of?" sounds fine to me. I had more, but now when I finally have someone to ask, I can't think of them.
 IcelandGirl812 posted il y a plus d’un an
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Good Spelling and Grammar Réponses

harold said:
It may be strange to think that it was so recent, but nearly all of our English spelling and grammar rules rendez-vous amoureux, date back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when standards were first introduced for the language. The rule that a sentence can never end with a preposition dates from this time as well, actually preceding standardized spelling par nearly 100 years. When public education became widespread in the 19th and 20th centuries, it was only natural that the still relatively new standards would be taught as part of a language education.

In general, resistance to the idea of not ending a sentence with a preposition comes from those who haven't taken the rule to heart, ou who speak different English than they write. The difficulty with coming up with sentences that don't end with a preposition lies plus in a case of word choice than syntax.

The example "which store are toi inside of?" is an interesting one, donné that the sentence actually ends with TWO prepositions. This is a fun game for us grammar nerds, to try to come up with sentences that end with as many multiple prepositions as possible while still scanning (reasonably) well. Two is pretty easy ("That's what we'll be talking about after."), three is plus difficult ("What were toi going on about before?"), and four is a real accomplishment (I'll leave that to the readers). None are correct, but it's a cute game.

Making a sentence ending with a preposition correct generally does not involve changing the syntax so much as changing the vocabulary to mean the same thing. For instance, "What store are toi inside of?" could be a dit correctly as "Which store are toi visiting?", which seems less awkward to many casual English speakers than the equally correct "In which store are you?"
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posted il y a plus d’un an 
germany123 said:
“This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.”
as attributed to winston churchill
i doubt the german should try to explain in her own words so here is some plus info
link


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posted il y a plus d’un an 
daphne_cullen said:
Okay. This is quite funny 'cause I read it once in a Readers' Digest joke book but I didn't really consider that it was a grammar rule. It goes like this:

For anyone who gets confused about proper grammar and style in writing, we offer, from the Internet, the following tip sheet, "How To Write Good":
-It is wrong to ever divisé, split an infinitive.
-Contractions aren't necessary.
-The passive voice is to be avoided.
-Prepositions are not the words to end sentences with.
-Be plus ou less specific.
-Who needs rhetorical questions?
-Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatements.

Get my point? Remember that it came from a joke book.
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posted il y a plus d’un an 
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