Grammatical usage error that occurs when a preposition is left at the end of a sentence or clause. This quirk of the English language is said to be the result of John Dryden's efforts to translate of his poems into Latin and then back into English. In doing so, he found that it was impossible to end a sentence with a preposition in Latin, and therefore must be incorrect in English.

Some examples are:

  • What are you looking at; should be "At what are you looking?"
  • What are you thinking of (and/or about); "Of what are you thinking?"

Doing this, however, gives a very stilted and archaic feeling to writing/speaking, and as the English language evolves, many editors, professors, etc. are accepting dangling prepositions as natural and correct.

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