Ending sentences with prepositions

Some people will say that you should never end a sentence with a preposition. Nowadays it’s more of an optional rule, but it pays to be aware of it nevertheless. Take this sentence for example:

Simon struggled to lift the heavy package up.

The most common way to correct this sort of sentence is to move the preposition to somewhere else in the sentence, like this:

Simon struggled to lift up the heavy package.

Of course, there are almost always exceptions to any rule. Sometimes, moving the preposition from the end of the sentence results in a new sentence that sounds no better or even worse. There is a more detailed rule which outlines when it is OK to end a sentence with a preposition:

A sentence can end with a preposition if the object of the preposition is earlier in the sentence.

So a sentence like this is OK:

The object of the preposition ‘with’ is the noun ‘clothes’ earlier in the sentence. Here’s an example of where the preposition at the end of the sentence does not have an object:

When first looking at this sentence you might be tempted to say that ‘where’ is the object of the preposition ‘at’. The problem with this is that ‘where’ is an adverb - the object has to be either a noun or a pronoun.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Sentences ending in phrasal verbs