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wwh>Churchill..."....up with which I will not put."Bill - that's right, and it may sound awkward. The fact is, Churchill's phrase was not only correct, but also memorable, as YOU remember it and the correct form BECAUSE of it! Good one!  Shoshannah
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Shoshannah, I'll go so far as to agree with you on a construction such as "Where are you at?" which can be easily replaced with "Where are you?" Other than that, nothing else to say on the matter for right now. I'd like to hear what others have to say. Dr. Bill, I think it's: "A preposition at the end of a sentence is something up with which I shall not put." And, another favorite, from the little kid gong to bed: "Dad, why did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?"
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::sigh:: dear ASp, this keeps coming up. the last time, someone posted a really good rebuttal against. I'll see if a can find it lurking around. keep your chin out. [sometime later] here's *a thread: http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=4180[sometime later still} and now I'm going to quote the whole section from the alt.usage.english FAQ, just because I really think it says everything that needs to be said on the subject... Preposition at end ------------------ Yes, yes, we've all heard the following anecdotes: (1) Winston Churchill was editing a proof of one of his books, when he noticed that an editor had clumsily rearranged one of Churchill's sentences so that it wouldn't end with a preposition. Churchill scribbled in the margin, "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put." (This is often quoted with "arrant nonsense" substituted for "English", or with other variations. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations cites Sir Ernest Gowers' _Plain Words_ (1948), where the anecdote begins, "It is said that Churchill..."; so we don't know exactly what Churchill wrote. According to the Oxford Companion to the English Language, Churchill's words were "bloody nonsense" and the variants are euphemisms.) (2) The Guinness Book of (World) Records used to have a category for "most prepositions at end". The incumbent record was a sentence put into the mouth of a boy who didn't want to be read excerpts from a book about Australia as a bedtime story: "What did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to from out of about 'Down Under' up for?" Mark Brader (msb@sq.com -- all this is to the best of his recollection; he didn't save the letter, and doesn't have access to the British editions) wrote to Guinness, asking: "What did you say that the sentence with the most prepositions at the end was 'What did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to from out of about "Down Under" up for?' for? The preceding sentence has one more." Norris McWhirter replied, promising to include this improvement in the next British edition; but actually it seems that Guinness, no doubt eventually realising that this could be done recursively, dropped the category. (3) "Excuse me, where is the library at?" "Here at Hahvahd, we never end a sentence with a preposition." "O.K. Excuse me, where is the library at, *asshole*?" Fowler and nearly every other respected prescriptivist see NOTHING wrong with ending a clause with a preposition; Fowler calls it a "superstition". ("Never end a sentence with a preposition" is how the superstition is usually stated, although it would "naturally" extend to any placement of a preposition later than the noun or pronoun it governs.) Indeed, Fowler considers "a good land to live in" grammatically superior to "a good land in which to live", since one cannot say "a good land which to inhabit".
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The fact is, Churchill's phrase was not only correct,
but also memorable ... for its customary pithy tongue-in-cheek quality. tsuwm, thank you for the look-up. 
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Dear tsuwm: re: "Excuse me, where is the library at?" "Here at Hahvahd, we never end a sentence with a preposition." "O.K. Excuse me, where is the library at, *asshole*?"
That story had to be made up by a real anal orifice who never saw the inside of the Yard. The Widener Memorial Library is the largest building there and has its name in foot high letters easily visible from almost any part of the Yard. And that had to be a Yale man talking to the visitor.
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Not disputing the OED or tsuwm , would never dare!
The way I heard it, from my Dad, was that an American editor cabled Winston that many of his sentences ended with prepositions and asking the great man to re-work several sentences for the American edition of one of his books. Churchill then shot back a cable saying "That is a pedantry, up which I will not put."
That's the story going around the newspaper circles at the time. (late 1940s) I simply repeat it ... keeping myths alive is part of the High Priestess job isn't it??
wow
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Example: Verdi's greatest opera was his Requiem
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In the Oxford Press American Desk Encyclopedia , after noting Verdi's operas Rigoletto, Il travatore, La traviata, Don Carlos and Otello, it says : "Among other compositions are several sacred choral works, including Requiem (1874)."
wow
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Well, I don't see an opus number on the score, whatever that means.
Opus means work. Opus 34, e.g., on a piece of music simply means that that piece of music is the 34th piece written by that particular composer. An opera (plural of opus) is so called because it is a collection of works.
The joke is that Verdi was best known for his operas and the music of the Requiem has a very operatic feel to it. There were other aspects of it that the speaker of the workshop mentioned that were operatic in nature but to call it an opera was to ignore its true nature.
It grew out of a single section that Verdi had written for a project that he had started when the Italian poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni died. Verdi suggested that the great composers of Italy collaborate to compose a Requiem to honor Manzoni and he took on the task of writing the Libera me section. The resulting Requiem was a failure. It was never performed but Verdi built his Requiem on his section. That Requiem was not a failure.
Verdi, by the way, was an agnostic.
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Or as I countered some one with once-- with a half wittism of someone elses-- "oh yes, I know the rule--A preposition is something you are never supposed to end a sentance with!"
They almost nodded in agreement-- and then realize what i said!
I try not to do it in formal writing-- but I think it is fine in informal speaking.
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pray tell, have all the rules of grammar been swept away….?[rant] Earth calling, Earth calling. Wake up, girl, wherever you’ve been the last 140 years, cause you gotta hear the news – not only have “the rules” been swept away, but also so have their basic validity as a linguistic concept. It is now widely taken for granted that like all other meta-language, linguistic constructions such as ‘grammar’ are post-facto creations of the human mind – they are descriptions, models, attempts to find the patterns in what is, not some frumpy schoolmarm-ish code of what must be. Descriptions of how particular speech communities use their variety of language – yes. Guidance notes as to what may therefore be preferable to fit certain social norms – sometimes. Rules – never. So sorry, as you seen to have an insecure craving for The TRUTH – but RealLife™ is more complicated. As for your assertion that It may sound awkward, but so what, if it's correct? – I can be bothered to raise nothing more grand than a big fat raspberry.  If you cannot hear the natural euphony of a language, you are failing to even get to first base. And hence your ability to turn the famous Winston Churchill quote through 180° of meaning - no dabbling in the box of coloured crayons can recompense for that. [/rant]
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