Anyone want to hear the only sentence that ends in not one, but FIVE prepositions?

Question

A man goes downstairs to get a book for his son's bedtime story. When he brings it back, it's not the story the boy had hoped for, so he told his dad, "Why did you bring that book I didn't want to be read
TO OUT OF UP FOR?

As Winston Churchill said (paraphrased), "The rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition is one up with which I will not put!"

I knew I'd get the "duh?" reaction from almost everyone who responded, but figured out it would be worth it if even one person enjoyed the joke. Besides, as I've said before, I don't call it "wasting" five points, I call it "using" five points!

Thanks, Sonyack - I've heard of that book, but haven't read it yet. Have you read "Woe is I"? More along the same lines, and too funny.

And yes, the punctuation is right. There isn't any. He didn't want to be "read to" out of that book, and his Dad brought it up(stairs). Still confused?

And also, Churchhill's sentence did finish; he was just trying to say "one I will not put up with" without ending the sentence with "with" (a preposition).

Right, it was a child saying it. Perhaps I should have said "why". Okay, I was "mitaken" as Bruhaha says. So much for trying to have a little fun.

Answer 1

I suppose the boy found that particular book too boring to have any of it read to him. He'd likely prefer to doze off with his head against the hard book. With that book underneath his head, he might finally find some use for it as an extra-firm pillow. As far as that book is concerned, you might say that his head would rather go
WITHOUT EXCEPT FOR AGAINST UNDERNEATH.

Answer 2

Thanks, forgot about that story. But as you can see, Yahoo Answers is the last place to post amusing stories about grammar - a lot, a real lot, of people haven't a clue that there even IS such a thing as grammar.

If you like grammar stuff, you should get "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." It's a book about punctuation, of all things, and it was a big surprise that it sold so well.

The title is a story about a wrong punctuation and a panda: this panda goes into a bar, grabs a sandwich and wolfs it down, fires off a pistol, and goes out the door, dropping a pamphlet on his way out...the bartender picks up the pamphlet and reads under Pandas, "Eats, shoots and leaves."

Answer 3

Fun but:

1) It should be either "WHY" or "WHAT. . . for", not "WHY. . . for" ("why for" is slang, or just plain wrong!)

2) Separating a verb and preposition with just a pronoun, noun or simple noun phrase is common enough, but it is at best "not preferred" to place a more elaborate noun phrase in this position. How much less to do so with an entire clause!
http://www.rit.edu/~seawww/phrasalverbs/pv03syntactic.html

So "bring that book up" is fine, but for the longer construction you need the unseparated alternative, "bring up. . . "


Thus, typical English syntax would call for,
"Why did you bring up that book I didn't want you to read out of?"


3) The attribution of "up with which I will not put" to Churchill is, unfortunately, almost certainly mitaken
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001715.html
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill#Disputed_quotations

Answer 4

I've never come across that one before! But I like it!

Shouldn't it start "What did you bring ..." though? As it ends in 'for'? You know, how you say "What did you {kill him / do that} for?" instead of "Why did you {kill him / do that} for?" But then, it IS supposed to be spoken by a child, so I guess it's not so important!
; )

There seems to be a LOT of controversy over what exactly it was that Churchill said, but all the different versions seem to end with "up with which I shall/will not put." so I don't think any discrepancies matter! What a crazy way to say it though..!

Answer 5

I'm sorry I don't quite get it either. Did you type it our right with all the proper punctuation? When i read it by putting in punctuation I get " Why did you bring that book, I didn't want to be read "To out of up For". with this punctuation it seems like it could be the name of a book I think.
On the other hand if you quoted Winston churchill correctly his sentence didn't seem to finish.

Answer 6

Actually, the exact quote is even more on point..."A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with"...the point being that strict adherence to codified grammatical structure can result in unintelligible statements.

Answer 7

That doesn't make a lick of sense, and neither does you wasting 5 points to point it out.

Why would you want to waste like that for??

Answer 8

you didnt let me answer
i was going to say no before you butted in

Answer 9

You really need to get out more.

But thanks for the 2 points.

Answer 10

Clever you are!