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From: Jack Hamilton <jfh@acm.org>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: Ending a question with 'for'?
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 07:40:48 -0700
Organization: Copyright (c) 2004 by Jack Hamilton. Reproduction without attribution, and archiving without permission, are not allowed.
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MyName <NoMail@NoServer.com> wrote:
>Is it grammatically wrong to end a question with 'for'?
In general, no.
>Ex. "Why would you do that for?"
In that case, yes, it's wrong, because "why" means "what for", making
your question "What did you do that for for?". Say "What did you do
that for?" instead, or "Why did you do that?"
>Is it *always* wrong to end a question with it or just for certain
>situations?
It's not always wrong. It's usually OK. Good writers have ended
sentences with propositions for centuries.
==
Jack Hamilton
jfh@acm.org
==
In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted comfort and security.
And in the end, they lost it all - freedom, comfort and security.
Edward Gibbons
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