Things we should do away with

[Killick]

people who believe everything someone emails them

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.

 

[Stoney]

Royal Families
Royal Weddings
Goldman Sachs
Miracle Whip
Jellyfish

 

[Mark McGwire]

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.

 

[YankeeFan]

Sock puppets.

 

[NickMordo]

Clark Kellogg

 

[Mark McGwire]

Go get me a cup of coffee, newb.

 

[YankeeFan]

Avatars that are used as cheap shots against other posters.

 

[dooley_womack1]

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.

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.

 

[Mark McGwire]

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.

 

[YankeeFan]

American English is not a Germanic language.

But they are a good Beatles tribute band:

http://www.americanenglishbeatles.com/

 

[Buck]

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.

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.

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'?

 

[outofplace]

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.

Hell, even my college linguistics professor acknowledged that it is a silly and outdated rule.

 

[Mark McGwire]

Your college linguistic professor is wrong.

As Buck adroitly points out, there's always a better way to write the sentence. You can't "outdate" the need for prepositions to have objects. That's silly.

 

[YankeeFan]

Has anyone said sock puppets yet?

 

[ColdCat]

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.

English (either American or the Queen's) does borrow words from nearly every other language, but its root and basic syntax is Germanic.
The misconception about prepositions comes from boarding school teachers 200 years ago seeing that rule in Latin, French, Italian and every other western European language and brought the rule over to English, not understanding that the rule did not apply in that case.

 

[secretariat]

Has anyone said sock puppets yet?

No. I think you should say it five or six more times.

 

[joe_schmoe]

People who use the word literally incorrectly. I literally want to punch them all.

 

[YankeeFan]

People who use the word literally incorrectly. I literally want to punch them all.

Don't let Joe Biden's Secret Service detail hear that.

 

[dooley_womack1]

You just like the word "dangling"

 

[Mark McGwire]

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.

English (either American or the Queen's) does borrow words from nearly every other language, but its root and basic syntax is Germanic.
The misconception about prepositions comes from boarding school teachers 200 years ago seeing that rule in Latin, French, Italian and every other western European language and brought the rule over to English, not understanding that the rule did not apply in that case.

No, the logic comes from all prepositions needing objects. And normal Latinate construction puts the verb at the end of the sentence, so I'm not sure why they'd even need a rule about prepositions ending sentences.