What are you a big fan of?

Question

What are you a big fan of?What is it a short version of?Those kinds of sentence are okay to use to you? Thank you so much as always and have a good day in advance.

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

These are examples of sentences that end with a preposition. The traditional advice given by language purists was to restructure the sentence to move the preposition somewhere else:

"Of what are you a big fan?"
"Of what is it a shorter version?"

In some cases, this restructuring can be done fairly naturally; in other cases, it sounds silly. There is a famous quote attributed to Winston Churchill. He (or someone) had written a sentence that ended with a preposition, and the document was returned to him with the sentence "corrected", like one of the two examples above. Being a rather stubborn as well as very knowledgeable man, Churchill was angered by this pedantry and responded by writing a note that said something like "This is the kind of arrant nonsense up with which I will not put".

This comment simultaneously expresses his contempt for the language prescriptivist who had "corrected" the sentence, and illustrates the point that avoiding a preposition at the end of a sentence can make the sentence sound silly.

The end of that sentence would normally read "... which I will not put up with", and will not put up with is a common phrase that means that he won't allow it. But with is a preposition; he had deliberately moved it, to avoid having a preposition at the end of his sentence, and in the process, created a satirised version of a common phrase, which makes little sense by itself, and only serves to point out that it can be foolish to follow general rules of grammar dogmatically; often there are exceptions to rules.

In any case, the "preposition at end of sentence" (Google it) rule/guideline is not generally considered valid nowadays. So your sentences are fine.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks

Could I ask you few other quick questions?
i don't know how to say the following:
I don't know if this wording is ok.

ONE
The best laptop for that purpose/use would be the MacBook. It has everything he'll need, and it is the most basic Mac in a laptop configuration. It's the lease powerful one in terms of configuration/specs. I on;y need a computer with 2gb ram not 4 or 8.

I don't know if 'in a laptop config' means 'in terms of specs/config' like if it's a 2gb ram or 4 gb ram computer.

How would I phrase->

For he use I have for it, this basic model macbook is enough in terms of configuration/specs/in a laptop configuration. I only need a 2gb ram.

TWO
Would you tell me if this is a common phrase? Are both correct?
I see hum differently since he made a pass at me.
I don't see him the same since he made a pass at me

THREE
Do the 2 underline go together? It doesn't seem so.
He's the only player that I trust when he has the ball.

FOUR
Please correct.
In terms of landing, if you had to choose between landing in the ocean or on land if your plane was going down, which would you prefer to land?

Thank you in advance

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

No. Please post your unrelated questions in a new thread.

Anonymous · Answer

I've posted it but haven't gotten any replies. Could you help me please?

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

OK. Provide a link to the new thread and I will reply on it.

What are you a big fan of?

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