This week’s grammar report comes from a sentence written by the Film Snob. In his article, “The (worst) movies of 2012,” this sentence made me both smile and furrow my brow; it contained a “forte” and a “foible.” The “forte” was the creativeness and word plays in the Film Snob’s description of the movie Wanderlust. He wrote, “I really identified with the characters, in that I found myself wandering out of the theater about 45 minutes in.” I chuckled out loud.
Being the observant readers that you are, however, you may have noticed that the description ended in a preposition, the act we often associate with a “no-no,” or “foible.” The Film Snob simply could have said “…I found myself wandering out of the theater after about 45 minutes.”
This brings up the debate about ending a sentence with a preposition. Modern grammarians say if a preposition at the end of a sentence sounds fine and makes sense, then go ahead and use it. The 16th Edition of Chicago Manual of Style states the rule was an ill-founded superstition. Hmm. It sounds like terminal prepositions are in!
Winston Churchill purposely ended sentences with prepositions, commenting that “overzealous grammarians are people whom I will not put up with.” He said he’d rather end every sentence with a preposition than trip over the clumsy alternative, such as, “overzealous grammarians are people up with whom I will not put.”
While this report’s example of a foible wasn’t a total foible, we were able to affirm that when it comes to prepositions at the end of sentences, you may relax when you read one, as the pressure is now off.
