John Avison: In the days when the sun nearly always had his hat on

Aug 28 2008 By John Avison

MORE grammatical musings. My, you are patient with me!

‘So I turned around and said to her ...’ Why would you want to do that? Assuming a turning around involves a rotation of 180 degrees at least, you wouldn’t then be able to see to whom you were talking.

The last part of the sentence above sparks another thought.

I’m wondering when the grammatical rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition will disappear.

In speech, we wouldn’t give it a second thought, and the last part of that sentence would run: "You wouldn’t then be able to see who you were talking to."

So perhaps it’s time to shut up about what’s correct and incorrect in this instance.

Meanwhile, I must apologise for saying that ‘bus’ is short for autobus. This applies only on the Continent.

Over here, it’s short for omnibus. Those who pointed this out to me generously refrained from crowing about a grammar fiend who gets his words wrong.