Friday, 27 January 2012

Up with which I will not put!

First reported in Plain Words (1948) by Sir Ernest Gowers, it is said that Winston Churchill once made this marginal comment against a sentence that clumsily avoided a prepositional ending.

"This is the sort of English up with which I will not put".

What a good job he never read the following sentence as it ends with a surprising FIVE prepositions!

"What did you bring that book that I didn't want to be read to out of up for?"

It takes a bit of practise to say that!  There is your challenge for the day.

1 comment:

wrongwatch said...

I have just recently come to following you on Twitter. I'm a lucky guy! Thank you.