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Whe're you at?
What the hell? Am I ignorant or is "at" in that sentence a dangling participle? Can anyone tell me why a dangling participle is wrong? Is it wrong? And why are marketing companies dumbing-down our language and making it ok to be ignorant in speaking, and writing? I don't remember the name of the company, but I recently saw a POSTER on a store with some cell-phone company using the catch-phrase "Where you at?" It was obviously marketed to the African-American people, due to the fact that all three of the people on the poster looked like "thugs". Are they trying to imply that if you are black, you will use an incorrect dangling participle? Funny what get's out to the people, I'm sure, in any country.
I am incorrect, I will admit, I've just done research, and the "experts" say that you may or may not end a sentence with a preposition. However in my instance of "whe're you at?" is improper to end with a preposition. There are many cases for and against the useage of preps at the end of a sentence, and many different arguements. In either case, that sentence is WRONG. I would rather sound like a high-class snob in my communications(which, Laura, there are no problems with, thank you), which I am not, than sound like an ignorant uneducated person. Ending sentences with a preposition is ok, but not here.
The myth that ending a sentence with a preposition is wrong appears to have started with an influential book by an eighteenth-century Bishop of London, Robert Lowth, according to Bill Bryson's The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words. In Lowth's Short Introduction to English Grammar, the "gentleman grammarian" urged his readers to be polite by avoiding preps at the end.
3 Answers
- 2 decades agoFavorite Answer
First, "at" is not a participle. It's a preposition. And it's perfectly acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition, especially in informal speech. The bigger issue might be the use of the apostrophe in "whe're" which makes no sense. Before you criticize a poster, which can legitimately use colloquial language, I suggest you improve your own communication skills and knowledge of the language.
Source(s): 30 years as a writer and editor.
