The Made-Up Grammar Rule You Learned in School

At some point you’ve probably been corrected for ending a sentence with a preposition — words such as “with,” “to,” or “about.” Maybe a teacher even circled it in red ink. There’s just one problem: This is a 17th-century misunderstanding that was never meant to be a hard-and-fast rule in English. The myth stems from centuries of trying to force English to behave like Latin, a language with completely different grammar.

Modern style guides and dictionaries overwhelmingly agree that ending a sentence with a preposition is perfectly acceptable. Even distinguished writers such as Shakespeare and Jane Austen regularly ended sentences with prepositions, providing evidence that it’s often the most natural choice. Here’s how this misleading so-called rule came to be.

Before we unravel the myth, let’s review prepositions. They’re typically simple, everyday words that show how other parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, phrases, etc.) are connected. Common examples include: “of,” “in,” “to,” “for,” “with,” “on,” “at,” “from,” “by,” and “about.” Prepositions indicate relationships, most often by showing direction (“She walked to the train”), location (“The book is on the table”), or time (“We left at noon”). They can also introduce an object, as in, “Prepositions are parts of speech.”

We use prepositions every day, and most native English speakers place them at the end of sentences without thinking twice. Consider these examples: “That’s the show I was telling you about” and “Who are you going with?”

This sentence structure is called preposition stranding — the preposition is separated from its object. For example, in “What are you looking for?” the preposition “for” is separated from its object, “what.” According to those against terminal prepositions, a preposition should appear only directly before its object: “For what are you looking?” But this sentence structure doesn’t flow naturally in conversational English.

The “never end a sentence in a preposition” rule did not originate in English. In fact, ending a sentence with a preposition has been the norm since the days of Old English. Instead, the rule sprang from 17th-century grammarians who admired Latin and believed English speakers should copy it — and Latin sentences cannot end in prepositions due to their grammatical structure.

Grammarian Joshua Poole is generally credited with adopting the rule into English, though poet John Dryden popularized it. Dryden was England’s first Poet Laureate and a literary critic. In 1672, he criticized fellow poet Ben Jonson for his grammar: “preposition in the end of the sentence; a common fault with him.” The made-up rule began to catch on and was seen as a sign of higher education. It had little to do with actual grammar and more to do with prestige. By the early 20th century, grammarians abandoned it as its popularity waned — yet teaching it as a rule still persists in some classrooms.

Some may recognize this rule against preposition stranding as a feature of Romance languages. Derived from Latin, Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian still follow it today. However, English is a Germanic language, so its sentence structure calls for different rules.

In English, forcing prepositions away from the end of a sentence can sometimes feel awkward. For example, we naturally say, “Who are you talking to?” Moving the preposition from the end requires complete restructuring, resulting in a very formal question that sounds forced: “To whom are you talking?”

In another example, “This is the topic we were arguing about” becomes “This is the topic about which we were arguing” — the latter is undoubtedly awkward in everyday conversation. While both versions in these examples are grammatically correct, modern linguists generally agree that sentence-ending prepositions are completely acceptable and sound more natural.

In short, this is not a binding rule in English. No major modern style guides prohibit ending sentences with prepositions, and linguistic authorities, such as Merriam-Webster, state that terminal prepositions are perfectly fine. However, in very formal or academic writing, some teachers or writers may still prefer to reduce the number of sentences that end in prepositions, as it is a more conversational tone. But this is a stylistic preference, not a grammatical rule.

Ultimately, good writing and communication depend on clarity and natural flow — not on forcing English to imitate Latin. Sometimes the best place for a preposition is exactly where it’s been put for centuries: at the end of the sentence.