According to Firefox...

[wiseheart]

Free thought: Ending a sentence with a preposition is nothing to be afraid of.

I am relieved. That's how I was taught in my English courses but people kept telling me how wrong it is. Firefox may be wrong, of course, but at least I have an argument on my side, hehehe.

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I ignore that rule!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

So do I, but at least now I have a valid argument to do so. Firefox has spoken! ;))

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It's one of those more-of-a-guideline rules. There are sentences where rephrasing to avoid ending in a preposition results in something barbarous, but that one I'd tend to rephrase, personally.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, who cares? Does it interfere with effective communication of the writer's meaning? No, so folks should just get over it.

HOWEVER... As someone who earned her living as a technical editor/writer for a number of years, I have to acknowledge that it is still "against the rules." So, I would avoid doing it in formal writing and in any situation where someone might be assessing my qualifications based on my writing, such as in a cover letter for a resume when applying for a job or admission to a university. My concern is that there might be someone who (to quote one of the soldiers in the second "Aliens" movie describing the platoon's newbie commander) "seriously has a corncob up his ass" about nitpicky things like this, and do I really want to risk losing a chance to get to the face-to-face interview stage over something that stupid?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. However, I was expressly taught to use dangling participles (or whatever they are called) in language school and was seriously shocked to see that it's considered a mistake. Could it be different in British English and American English?