prepositions ending sentences

[Thomas Barker <DITTB -at- TTACS -dot- TTU -dot- EDU>]

Jim Venis recently quoted Winston Churchill as saying:

        "This is the kind of impertinence up with which I will
        not put."

when criticized for ending sentences with prepositions.  I have
heard the story, but with a different quote, viz:

        "This is precisely the kind of tyranic pedantry up with
        which I will not put."

I like this version better, because it makes sense in terms of
the officiousness of the original criticism.

The last word:  when I asked my students once to relate to me the
grammar rules that had stuck with them over the years, one wrote:

        "Never end a sentence with a proposition."

I, for one, can think of many useful applications for this rule!

Thomas Barker
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas