Things we should do away with

Oh God, yes. If my sister forwards me one more goddamned thing that sounds a bit trite... and is proven so by a simple web search... I'm going to drive the four hours to Akron, walk in her front door and take a sledgehammer to her computer.

 

Royal Families
Royal Weddings
Goldman Sachs
Miracle Whip
Jellyfish

 

American English is not a Germanic language. It's a lingua franca with grammar rules appropriated from several languages. One of which is... A sentence cannot end in a preposition. Which is simply logical because prepositions require objects. If the sentence ends with a preposition, said preposition has no object and is, by definition, dangling.

 

Sock puppets.

 

Clark Kellogg

 

Go get me a cup of coffee, newb.

 

Avatars that are used as cheap shots against other posters.

 

Sorry, but a story I'm editing darn well better have "something to believe in" instead of "something in which to believe." Less-stilted writing demands the former, which is understandable and acceptable to those we are trying to reach. The saw about no prepositions to end a sentence ends with Mrs. Fenwick in P.S. 30.

 

Which is fine, Dools. Far from the only rule we break in the interest of readability. But the rule does exist and is obvious when you think about it.

Put it's not a change up with which I shall not put.

 

But they are a good Beatles tribute band:

http://www.americanenglishbeatles.com/

 

How's it being used?
If a writer uses 'They need something to believe in' why not just change it to 'They need to believe in something'?

 

Hell, even my college linguistics professor acknowledged that it is a silly and outdated rule.