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That s What They Say for February 7, 2021
Think about a parent dealing with a child who has a sheet of stickers. The parent asks, “What did you put the sticker on?”
In this example, “on” is the preposition, and “what” is the object of the preposition. Since “what” got brought up to the beginning of the question, should “on” have followed? The question is, should the “on” have followed the “what”?
If we followed the rule, we would end up with “On what did you put the sticker?” While this is considered grammatically correct, it doesn’t sound very conversational.
The rule of not ending sentences with prepositions goes back to 1672 when English poet John Dryden criticized fellow poet and playwright Benjamin Jonson for stranding prepositions. Dryden went on to avoid this in his own writing and even revised his earlier work to follow the rule.