Patterico's Pontifications

2/7/2005

Memo to Sir Paul McCartney from the Grammar Police

Filed under: Humor — Patterico @ 7:32 am



The phrase “this world in which we live in” has one too many instances of the word “in.” Please take care of this at your earliest convenience.

UPDATE: For one thing, it’s apparently “ever-changing world” — and a couple of commenters also say that it is “world in which we’re livin’.”

Well, okay then.

13 Responses to “Memo to Sir Paul McCartney from the Grammar Police”

  1. The lyric is actually “And if this ever-changing world in which we live in …” but you make a good point about a 31-year-old song.

    mack (d2b577)

  2. It’s the old story of stretching (read: “outright violating”) the rules of grammar to make the lyrics of a song rhyme or fit a particular rhythm. One of my pet peeves is hearing any song with a lyric remotely similar to, “…a love that was made for you and I.”

    Laudio (06d15b)

  3. Read your post, Mr. Grammarian. You ended your sentence in a preposition. That was an automatic “F” at the college I attended. (Just having fun with you!).

    B. A. Higgins (c4b447)

  4. That’s odd. I always thought it was “…this everchanging world in which we’re living”. I guess I was giving him too much credit, hearing what should have been there….

    Wiz (041bc8)

  5. Sorry Higgins, but “in” as used at the end of the sentence in Patterico’s post is not used as a preposition, so it’s not incorrect. (Just having fun with you!)

    Chris (669fd7)

  6. What’s this? Prepositions are not to be used to end sentences with? This is something up with which I will not put.

    CGHill (6bfc75)

  7. Where are the prepositions supposed to be at?

    Ladainian (91b3b2)

  8. where is the defense for Paul. When your a Beatle you do whatever you want. You write the rules. When you have to build a wall to keep the mobs away I think we can allow him to speak sing in any manner he chooses. Besides, if your going to rag Paul, rag Ob la di Ob la da, the only mistake he ever made. How does he sleep,…..at night.

    Zed (99e42b)

  9. That lyric has bugged me since I was a kid (I’ve always been grammtically precocious).

    A couple clarifications:

    1. Sometimes a preposition is actually an adverb and doesn’t require an object: “The parade passed by.”

    2. A sentence can end in a preposition IF it’s object is elsewhere in the sentence: “What are you looking at?” can be rewritten as “At what are you looking?”

    3. What is incorrect is ending a sentence with a preposition without any object at all becuase an unnecessart redundancy is created, i.e.: “Where is it at?” should be “Where is it?”

    Sir Paul merely used his poetic license.

    goddessoftheclassroom (958651)

  10. goddessoftheclassroom,

    “It’s” shouldn’t have an apostrophe in your point #2.

    Sorry, there’s a grumpy ol’ schoolteach hiding in me who gets out now & then. Back, you demon, back!

    ras (edf21c)

  11. Actually, folks, the real lyric is “…this world in which we’re living”
    Perfectly proper.

    It used to bother me too, until someone with the lyrics showed them to me. Still grates, though.

    caltechgirl (4a9bac)

  12. Everybody knows the old joke by now, right? An Aggie — a slow-witted and thick-skulled graduate of Texas A&M — decided to pursue a graduate degree at Harvard. He made his way to Cambridge, walked into Harvard Yard and immediately got lost. He stopped the first person he saw and said, “Excuse me, fella, but can you tell me where the Dean’s office is at?”

    The Harvard guy looks at the Aggie scornfully and says, “Sir, here at HAHvard, we do not END our SENtences with a PREPosition.”

    The Aggie scrunches up his forehead for a second, thinks it over and says, “Gee, I’m sorry, fella. Let me try that again. Can you tell me where the Dean’s office is at … asshole?”

    Jeff Harrell (937967)

  13. Even if the words are “in which we’re livin'” (web sites appear to be split on this issue), it’s still awkward at best. For one thing, “in which” is grammatically stilted in a way that doesn’t gibe with dropping the final g in living, especially in the same sentences as “ever-changing,” where the same final g was not dropped. For another, the use of the present connotes an odd transiency, as if to suggest that we don’t live in this ever-changing world on a permanent basis; we’re just “livin'” here for the time being.

    Xrlq (c51d0d)


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