what is wrong with ending a noun phrase with prepositional phrase

Question

I want to know what is wrong with ending a sentence with a preposional phrase.I like to eat candy and in the park.

Jennie · Accepted Answer

There would be nothing wrong with ending your sentence with a prep. phrase. In your example the prepositional phrase is incorrect because it is not modifying anything. You could restate your sentence as follows:

I like to eat candy in the park.

or

I like to eat candy and dance in the park.

Does that help you?

Jen

Clive · Answer

Hi,

I want to know what is wrong with ending a sentence with a prepositonal phrase.

I like to eat candy and in the park.

This represents a combining of two sentences. I like to eat candy. I like to eat in the park.

I wouldn't say that it is grammatically wrong. The problem is that it is ugly English. A native speaker would often have to pause for a monment to understand the meaning. It makes 'trouble for a native speaker's ear'.

Generally speaking, when you use 'and' to combine two elements like this, good style requires that you use 'balance'. This means that you use similar grammatical elements.

eg I like to cook, to dance and to watch TV sounds fine.

eg I like to cook, to dance and Mary sounds terrible.

eg I eat apples, oranges and bananas sounds fine.

eg I eat apples, oranges and noisily sounds terrible.

eg I like to eat at the beach and in the park sounds fine.

eg I like to eat candy and in the park sounds terrible.

Best wishes, Clive

what is wrong with ending a noun phrase with prepositional phrase

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions