(no subject)

[derien]

"Food is the cornerstone upon which his career is based upon."

Okay, I know they didn't need two 'upons' in that sentence. I would prefer to see Food is the cornerstone upon which his career is based, but I can't think of why it shouldn't be Food is the cornerstone which his career is based upon. Can anyone tell me if it's just a matter of what you like the sound of, or is it really incorrect to finish up a sentence with 'upon'?

Comments

[tronella.livejournal.com]

I'd probably say the second one. I think some people have an issue with endind sentences with a preposition, though.

[lifeofmendel.livejournal.com]

technically you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition so, "cornerstone which his career is based upon" is grammatically incorrect. That's a very old school grammatical concept, though. Even when i was in high school in the early 90s, my english teacher made an example kind of like this:

"Well, that's the sort of grammatical error with which I will not put up."

to show that that sort of technicality sounds ridiculous in today's society. I'm sure you'll find some english purites that still object to ending things with prepositions, but they're the sort that probably need more of a social life outside of continually watching the original A&E Pride and Prejudice series over and over again.

[lifeofmendel.livejournal.com]

and i didn't mean to put a comma after the word "so", but i did. So. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Old school purist is here. Technically, the comma goes before 'so.' Giggle.

[cyberquail.livejournal.com]

Your English teacher's quote is based on a great old crabbyism of Winston Churchill. Supposedly, an editor of Sir Ernest Gowers’ Plain Words had clumsily rearranged one of Churchill’s sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition, and the Prime Minister, very proud of his style, scribbled this note in reply: “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”

I think of that every time I see a sentence ending in a preposition (but I still do it sometimes anyway!)