Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

Barbirolli · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 56

Hello,everyone Very Happy

Thank you for answering my questions every time!

I have a question. Which is correct ,A or B?

A I need some money to buy a new camera.
B I need some money to buy a new camera with.

Kristea · Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:22 pm Post subject:

Hello!

A is correct. NEVER end sentences with prepositions. (My English teaching heart can't stand that. Laughing

)

BTW - B can be made correct if written this way:
I need some money with which to buy a camera. (Too formal for most situations in my opinion.)

Good question, and I hope my answer made sense - Kristi
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Jintii · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 111 Location: New York City

In Barbirolli's sentences, I don't think that "with" adds any meaning to the sentence, so it can be left out. (<--- preposition!)

But regarding ending sentences with prepositions:

Kristea's answer will please English teachers and test scorers around the world Wink

, but I would like to add that prepositions at the end of sentence and clauses are -- and have always been -- part of the English language.

During the 18th century, Latin was considered a "perfect" language, so some grammarians at that time wanted to make English grammar similar to Latin grammar. In Latin, you cannot end sentences with prepositions; therefore, 18th century grammarians decided that you cannot do so in English, either. This idea caught on (<--- preposition!), and so teachers started teaching the new "rule", and some still teach it.

These days, in formal speech or writing, we avoid prepositions at the end of sentences, just as Kristea said. But informally, it is very, very common, and people get very emotional about whether it is right or wrong. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with it, but I still avoid it in my formal writing because I understand that in the opinion of many people, it is incorrect.

If you're interested in reading more about this, you might like these links:
http://www.columbiaseminary.edu/coffeetalk/050.html
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/prepositions2.html