Sentences that in English would end with a preposition

Question

How in general do you form sentences that in English would end with a preposition?

Examples

1. I want someone to hike with.
2. What is that for?
3. Where did you get that book from?
4. What time is the movie at?

I know these aren't the best constructions in English, but they are common.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Are you asking how we turn these into Spanish? You are right, the can't have the prepositions at the end like that. Look up relative pronouns here and you'll learn more.

Quiero a alguien con quien dar una caminata.
¿Para qué es eso? ¿De dónde obtuviste el libro? ¿A qué hora empieza la película?

Answer 2

Typically, to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, you place the preposition before the connector word. However, in some of your examples, that is impossible. Nevertheless, it is possible to rephrase them (often by placing the preposition at the beginning of the sentence).

I want to hike with someone. For what is that?/What is the purpose of that? From where did you get that book? At what time is the movie?

Answer 3

At school, I was taught that it was not correct to end a sentence with a preposition. That was a long time ago and I am not sure if that is relevant today.

Your sentences would therefore change to:

I want someone with whom to hike.

For what is that?

From where did you get that book?

At what time is the movie?

Personally, I cannot see anything wrong with saying these phrases either way.

Your last phrase sounds better by just saying: What time is the movie?

• Yeah, I have no idea why placing a preposition at the end of a sentence is incorrect other than it doesn't flow very well. - hithere3387 Dec 5, 2009
• It is nice to hear someone else that thinks the same way about this. - 00f2b5a1 Dec 5, 2009

Answer 4

I know these aren't the best constructions in English, but they are common.

Answer 5

In English, sentences with those hanging prepositions sound okay even though you are grammatically not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. In Spanish, it seems like it much much worse to end a sentence with a preposition so you have to make sure not to translate word for word but instead put the preposition back with the noun it is used with.

I have a related question. When you're using a relative pronoun in the Spanish version of the sentence (right? even though it's not used in the English version), am I putting the preposition in the right spot?

*We're going to visit the beach you used to go to. ? Vamos a visitar la playa a que ibas.

I went back to the hotel we were staying in. ? Regresé al hotel en que nos quedábamos.*

• yes the preposition goes right before the relative pronoun. In this case the "que" - 003487d6 Dec 5, 2009

Answer 6

I have a related question. When you're using a relative pronoun in the Spanish version of the sentence (right? even though it's not used in the English version), am I putting the preposition in the right spot?

*We're going to visit the beach you used to go to. ? Vamos a visitar la playa a que ibas.

I went back to the hotel we were staying in. ? Regresé al hotel en que nos quedábamos.*

I think you have to say: Vamos a visitar la playa a la cual ibas (solías ir).

Regresé al hotel en lo cual nos quedábamos.

In English, it could be expressed as:

We're going to visit the beach to which you used to go.

We went back to the hotel at which we were staying

This sounds overly formal in English, but I think it's necessary in Spanish.

• That does sound much better! I felt like there was something awkward about my sentences and I guess it was not the position of the preposition but using "que" instead of "lo/la cual". Thanks! - Luciente Dec 5, 2009

Answer 7

At school, I was taught that it was not correct to end a sentence with a preposition. That was a long time ago and I am not sure if that is relevant today.

Your sentences would therefore change to:

I want someone with whom to hike.

For what is that?

From where did you get that book?

At what time is the movie?

Personally, I cannot see anything wrong with saying these phrases either way.

Although in conversation I very often use sentences with the hanging preposition (as originally written by Brett), I find it helpful to turn them around this way when trying to put them into Spanish.