Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Yoshiyuki]

Would anyone kindly help me?
I have been wondering what was that famous cynical statement that Bernard Shaw was supposed to make in order to oppose the belief that a Good English sentence should use a preposition + relative pronoun instead of separating a preposition and a relative pronoun,leaving a preposition at the end of a sentence. I heard he had just tried to show the absurdity of the rule and the result sentence he came up with.
Thank you in advence.

[Lorikeet]

I'm not sure if this is the one you want, but according to Google, similar statements have been attributed to George Bernard Shaw as well as Winston Churchill.

Two of the common varieties are:

"That is something up with which I will not put!" attributed to George Bernard Shaw

Someone else said "I always heard this attributed to Winston Churchill. The story goes that some stuffy lady "corrected" his grammar, and he replied, 'That is the sort of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put!' "

[Yoshiyuki]

Thank you very much, Lorikeet, for your quick and precise reply. That really helped me.
I would like to tell you the reason I asked the question. The other day I came across the following sentence and it took me a while to figure out the meaning.

Quote:

The national flags of the countries of which the players are citizens are being put up.

I wonder if native speakers of English can easily get the meaning of this sentence.
Thank you again, Lorikeet.

[Lorikeet]

Heh answered in the other thread this time. (I read them all; don't have to put the same thing twice )

[Stephanie S]

Hi Yoshiyuki,

Yes, the sentence is understandable, but it's not very natural. I would have written, "The national flags of the players' countries are being put up." If the situation allows for a non-passive voice, an even better option would be, "They are putting up the national flags of the players' countries."

Hope that helps.

Stephanie
Elanguest

[Yoshiyuki]

Thank you, Stephanie S, for your reply. Your paraphrased sentences are very understandable to me. I know English is a very logical language, which sometimes makes me wonder if I can get the meaning of logically or gramatically correct sentences. Thanks a lot again for your help.

Yoshiyuki

[Stephanie S]

No problem!