ESL Grammar: RELATIVE CLAUSES (7) – No Prepositions at the End of Sentences!

In this ESL grammar lesson, students learn about the old grammar rule, which states that you should not end a sentence with a preposition. Students then practice filling in the blanks to complete sentences with this construction.

ESL Grammar: Avoiding Prepositions at the End of Sentences

In formal English, it’s often recommended to avoid ending sentences with prepositions. A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and other parts of the sentence. Examples include “in,” “on,” “at,” “by,” and “with.”

Why Avoid Ending Sentences with Prepositions?

• Formality: Ending sentences with prepositions can make your English sound informal or awkward, especially in written or formal contexts.
• Clarity: Avoiding ending sentences with prepositions helps make your sentences clearer and more precise.

How to Avoid Ending Sentences with Prepositions

1. Rephrase the Sentence:
   • Example:
     • Original: There’s the book that I’m looking for.
     • Rephrased: There’s the book for which I’m looking.
2. Move the Prepositional Phrase:
   • Example:
     • Original: This is the house I grew up in.
     • Rephrased: This is the house in which I grew up.

The English grammar lesson below teaches how to use relative clauses to avoid ending sentences with prepositions. Our series of ESL grammar lessons on subjects and verbs introduce these concepts and reinforce them through helpful and instructive exercises.

This lesson is available for free download, and you can download many more English grammar lessons focusing on advanced aspects of English grammar (past continuous tense, present perfect tense, present perfect continuous tense, passive voice, embedded questions, relative clauses) in our comprehensive, intermediate- to advanced-level ESL grammar textbook Great, Great Grammar! (Book 3: Tenses and More!).