this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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The whole "don't end sentences with a preposition" rule is not a real rule in English at all. Some pompous asshats like John Dryden claimed it should be a rule in the 17th century because that's a rule in Latin, and then everyone just repeated the "rule" forever. But notice how English is not Latin and has entirely different grammatical rules? Weird huh? And notice how a phrase like, "That's a policy I can agree with," sounds way more natural and easily understood than, "That's a policy with which I can agree." Both are technically correct, but the former is generally preferred and much more common phrasing among native speakers despite the supposed rule against it. It's up there with "i before e except after c", "never use double negatives", and "don't split infinitives" for English rules that everyone has been told that aren't actually rules at all and that we all break on the reg.
Same with less vs. fewer:
The funny part is that even Latin sometimes use final adpositions. For example, if I were to say "may the force be with you" in Latin, the most natural way to do it would be "sit uis tecum" (literally "be force youwith").
Granted, it is not common, and they're used as postpositions, but still.