4 ms·

Well, English too has some interesting ideas where to put prepositions in the sentence, that is, turn them basically into postpositions. For example, "Which bas

Well, English too has some interesting ideas where to put prepositions in the sentence, that is, turn them basically into postpositions. For example, "Which basket did you put that exquisite marble figurine in?" The "in" is logically related to "which basket", so one would expect that the question would actually be *"In which basket...", but nope, that's rustic and colloquial at best. I suspect it's because of the word inversion in questions, since in dependent clauses the order is reasonable: "I put the figurine in this woven concrete basket over there".

kofejnik 6y ago
> that's rustic and colloquial at best. nope, the other way around; "don't end sentences in prepositions" is a formal rule iirc. Quoting Grammarly website, * Which journal was your article published in? (Casual) * In which journal was your article published? (Formal)
ghostpepper 6y ago
This is a fascinating discussion. Could the tension/buffering in that sentence be resolved with something like: "Which basket has got that exquisite marble figurine"? When spoken by a native speaker 'has got' would likely be contracted to "which basket's got" Sub out 'has got' for 'contains' if you want to be more formal.
- shuntress 6y ago
  Shorten even further to "Exquisite marble figure; which basket?" or "which basket? Exquisite marble figure." Depending on which is more likely to short circuit based on context.
nicky0 6y ago
"In which basket did you put that exquisite marble figurine?" is perfectly good English. It sounds better to me that the "which ... in" version. (British English speaker.)
- pmoriarty 6y ago
  To my ears, a slight improvement to this would be to use the word "Into" instead of "In": "Into which basket did you put that exquisite marble figurine?"
  - c22 6y ago
    Or within which, with which, yields a pleasant alliteration.
samatman 6y ago
This is the type of errant sentence up with which I will not put.
- jan6 6y ago
  with that I'd put myself up with, but nice would be if more was written text along the lines of this...

kofejnik 6y ago

> that's rustic and colloquial at best. nope, the other way around; "don't end sentences in prepositions" is a formal rule iirc. Quoting Grammarly website, * Which journal was your article published in? (Casual) * In which journal was your article published? (Formal)

ghostpepper 6y ago

This is a fascinating discussion. Could the tension/buffering in that sentence be resolved with something like: "Which basket has got that exquisite marble figurine"? When spoken by a native speaker 'has got' would likely be contracted to "which basket's got" Sub out 'has got' for 'contains' if you want to be more formal.

shuntress 6y ago
Shorten even further to "Exquisite marble figure; which basket?" or "which basket? Exquisite marble figure." Depending on which is more likely to short circuit based on context.

nicky0 6y ago

"In which basket did you put that exquisite marble figurine?" is perfectly good English. It sounds better to me that the "which ... in" version. (British English speaker.)

pmoriarty 6y ago
To my ears, a slight improvement to this would be to use the word "Into" instead of "In": "Into which basket did you put that exquisite marble figurine?"
- c22 6y ago
  Or within which, with which, yields a pleasant alliteration.

samatman 6y ago

This is the type of errant sentence up with which I will not put.

jan6 6y ago
with that I'd put myself up with, but nice would be if more was written text along the lines of this...