Quotes About Prepositions

Grace, if you have used an iron within the last six months, I will eat that fork," Ms. Chancellor says. "Which one?" I try to tease. "You've got a lot of forks to choose from." "From which to choose, Grace. Do not end your sentences in prepositions, dear." "Of course, I totally see what you're getting at. I mean, at what you're getting.

The Patriarch Joseph, after agreeing with the Latins that their formula of the Holy Ghost proceeding FROM the Son meant the same as the Greek formula of the Holy Ghost proceeding THROUGH the Son, fell ill and died. An unkind scholar remarked that after muddling his prepositions what else could he decently do?' (Sir Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, pp. 17-18).

Prepositions are to language as aim is to a gun.

For example, there is an old grammarian's saw about how a sentence can end in five prepositions. Daddy trudges upstairs to Junior's bedroom to read him a bedtime story. Junior spots the book, scowls, and asks, "Daddy, what did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to out of up for?

The Patriarch Joseph, after agreeing with the Latins that their formula of the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Son meant the same as the Greek formula of the Holy Ghost proceeding through the Son, fell ill and died. An unkind scholar remarked that after muddling his prepositions what else could he decently do?

English loves to stay out all night dancing with other languages, all decked out in sparkling prepositions and irregular verbs. It is unruly and will not obey—just when you think you have it in hand, it lets down its hair along with a hundred nonsensical exceptions.

Some people have asked me where I find the large quantity of prepositions that I need to keep my Bookworms fit and well. The answer is, of course, that I use omitted prepositions, of which, when mixed with dropped definite articles, make a nourishing food. There are a superabundance of these in the English language

Ci sono tantissime cose che continuano a confondermi in italiano. Le preposizioni, per esempio.

The most common prepositional error is forgetting that the noun or pronoun in a prepositional phrase is the object of the preposition. The object of the preposition must be expressed in the objective case. Who can forget Jane Russell's line, in a 1970s Playtex ad, for a bra "for we full-figured gals." The preposition for mandates the pronoun us. But, then, Russell never was known for her pronouns.

Word endings fell away. Prepositions came in which took the language away from the Germanic and made it more English. Instead of adding a lump on the end of words, you could use 'to' or 'with'. 'I gave the dog to my daughter.' 'I cut the meat with my knife.' The order of words became important and prepositions became more common as signposts around sentences.

building a tower of description that was in constant danger of toppling over as more and more clauses were thrown on to it, adjectives and adverbs, bounteous, haltingly, found in pockets and pitched on, similes not spared, prepositions dangling and otherwise, metaphors

Prepositions are vital, of course. What would we do without in, of, by, for, on, and so forth? But as useful as those compact little words are, they must be limited and controlled or they'll fill the sentence with chaff, disrupt its flow, and force its rhythms into an annoying singsong.

Obviously, we can't cut all prepositions, nor should we try. But keeping them to a minimum offers a quick route to clarity, simplicity, and brevity.