English Grammar

Prepositions at the end of clauses

A preposition often connects two things – a noun, adjective or verb that comes before it and a noun phrase or pronoun (prepositional object) that comes after it.

• He was really angry with me.
• She was looking at him.
• They live in a small village.

In some structures we may put the prepositional object at or near the beginning of a clause. This happens especially in four cases:

wh-questions: What are you looking at?
relative clauses: This is the book that I told you about.
passives: I hate being shouted at.
infinitive structures: It is a boring place to live in.

Wh-questions

When a question word is the object of a preposition, the preposition most often comes at the end of the clause.

• Who is this present for? (For whom is this present? is extremely formal.)
• What are you looking at? (Less formal than At what are you looking?)
• Who did you go with? (Less formal than With whom did you go?)
• Where did you buy it from?

Relative clauses

When a relative pronoun is the object of a preposition, the preposition often goes at the end of a clause.

• This is the store that I told you about. (Less formal than … about which I told you.)
• She is the only woman (who) I have ever really been in love with. (Less formal than … with whom I have ever really been in love.)

Passives

In passive structures, prepositions go with their verbs.

• She was operated on last night.
• I hate being shouted at.

Infinitive structures

Infinitive complements can have prepositions with them.

• She needs other children to play with.
• We need a place to live in.

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