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Does anyone else have an inner grammarian that comes along and complains at inopportune moments? And -- technically -- the grammarian is correct, but that doesn't necessarily make the writing better?
I want to describe Tifa as wearing the same clothing she'd worn the night before. Or as wearing the same clothing she'd worn the night previous. Or the same clothing she'd worn previously. (Although I like being specific that she wore it at night, not just in general.) Or as wearing the same clothing she'd worn the previous night.
All but the first are correct, but -- dangit! -- the incorrect one sounds better!
So I asked my husband.
He said: Does anyone really pay attention to that anymore?
(I raised my hand.)
He said: I mean besides you and the Grammarian Your Mother Warned You About (which is the nickname we have for a friend of ours).
I know that the 'no ending a sentence with a preposition' rule has fallen out of grace, and that it's generally only followed if it would make the sentence sound stupid or awkward. But now I'm annoyed that I can't figure out a way to write the sentence where it is grammatically correct by the rules I learned (ages and ages and ages ago) and still sounds... good.
Does anyone else have an inner grammarian that comes along and complains at inopportune moments? And -- technically -- the grammarian is correct, but that doesn't necessarily make the writing better?
I want to describe Tifa as wearing the same clothing she'd worn the night before. Or as wearing the same clothing she'd worn the night previous. Or the same clothing she'd worn previously. (Although I like being specific that she wore it at night, not just in general.) Or as wearing the same clothing she'd worn the previous night.
All but the first are correct, but -- dangit! -- the incorrect one sounds better!
So I asked my husband.
He said: Does anyone really pay attention to that anymore?
(I raised my hand.)
He said: I mean besides you and the Grammarian Your Mother Warned You About (which is the nickname we have for a friend of ours).
I know that the 'no ending a sentence with a preposition' rule has fallen out of grace, and that it's generally only followed if it would make the sentence sound stupid or awkward. But now I'm annoyed that I can't figure out a way to write the sentence where it is grammatically correct by the rules I learned (ages and ages and ages ago) and still sounds... good.
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Date: 2009-07-16 06:52 pm (UTC)From:I did find several pages that went on at length about why it's okay to end a sentence with a preposition. I just... am being obstinate. ^^;
(It's also hard to agree with them on this subject when I disagree on others. I agree we sprinkle prepositions in where they're not needed, but I don't think "she fell out of the window" is overly verbose, or greatly improved by dropping the "of".)