Here are examples of reported speech with relative clauses ending with stranded prepositions:
- He told me the company he works for.
- She requested that I give him all the information he asks for.
- He exclaimed that this is the best festival he has been to.
This type of construction is considered informal and is often discouraged in formal writing. However, it is commonly used in spoken English and in informal writing.
Profiling Research
This post is about two points in the English Grammar Profile found in two different categories and two different CEFR levels. Differentiating them depends on what prepositional verbs are. A combination of the verb and preposition has an idiomatic expression with a distinct meaning. However, the English Vocabulary Profile gives a better idea of the true levels since much of this vocabulary ranges up to C2 even if it is considered B1 or B2 grammar.
B2 point 55 in the category of VERBS is defined as:
verb + preposition, where the preposition is separated from its complement.
Here are the EGP preposition stranding examples:
-
our clothes have to be clean and nice to look at.
-
… one difficulty which we should deal with.
-
… some ideas of what people in my community want to listen to.
B1 point 11 in the category of PREPOSITIONS is defined as:
end a reported question clause and a relative clause with a preposition, where the preposition is stranded from its complement.
Here are the examples from the EGP:
-
So this is the best festival I have been to.
-
Please give him all the information he asks for.
-
Everybody should see which company I work for.
*Should this not be a ‘question clause or relative clause’?
PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE:
The topic is two similar restaurants
Korean female, Level 3 writing class.
The most common stranded preposition examples can be found in iWeb corpus with a search for:
_V _I .
*Note in the feature image above this post that there are many examples highlighted by text inspector already.
Also, it is not easy to locate google news examples for the full stop.
1 LOOKING FOR. 106155
Maybe you have finally found what you are looking for.
2 WORK WITH. 64679
I told the coach, a guy I work with, and now you.
3 CHOOSE FROM. 62700
There are so many to choose from.
4 TALKING ABOUT. 57349
1 I’M TALKING ABOUT . 6157
2 YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT . 4424
3 YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT . 4040
4 I AM TALKING ABOUT . 3277
5 WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT . 3172
Trust me, I know what I‘m talking about. (C1 EVP)
5 DEAL WITH. 37648 EVP B1
1 AND A PLEASURE TO DEAL WITH . 216
The Tab
You have all been excellent tenants
and a pleasure to deal with
and I’m sorry to see you leave.
Jun 25, 2020
2 THAT NEED TO BE DEALT WITH . 201
3 THAT NEEDS TO BE DEALT WITH . 180
4 WAS A PLEASURE TO DEAL WITH . 138
5 THAT YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH . 129
6 LOOK LIKE. 33406
1 WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE. 1446
You can’t come down here and arrest people just because of what they look like.
2 GOING TO LOOK LIKE. 1124
3 SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE. 629
4 WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE. 486
5 IT WOULD LOOK LIKE. 468
7 BEGIN WITH. 32884
8 LOOKS LIKE. 26235
9 CAME FROM. 22274
10 LOOK AT. 21014
11 THINK OF. 18788
12 COMING FROM. 18516
13 THINK ABOUT. 18175
14 USED TO. 16077
15 PLAY WITH. 15342
16 PAY FOR. 15272
17 COME FROM. 15256
18 KNOW ABOUT. 14830
19 TALK ABOUT. 14571
20 CARE ABOUT. 14427
21 START WITH. 13988
22 COMES FROM. 13470
23 LOOKING AT. 12847
24 PAID FOR. 11236
25 DEALT WITH. 11192
26 LOOK FOR. 10358
27 GO TO. 10057
28 LISTEN TO. 9809
29 KNOWN FOR. 9782
30 BE LIKE. 9737
31 DEALING WITH. 9605
32 WORKING WITH. 9508
33 HEARD OF. 9418
34 TALK TO. 9414
35 COME BY. 9186
36 WAITING FOR. 9060
37 IS LIKE. 8946
38 ASK FOR. 8574
39 MADE OF. 8240
40 IS FOR. 7554
41 RID OF. 7408
42 KNOW OF. 7234
43 LIVE WITH. 7087
44 CARED FOR. 6847
45 RELATE TO. 6837
46 WORK FOR. 6605
47 GOING FOR. 6560
48 HOPED FOR. 6448
49 TALKED ABOUT. 6448
50 LOOKED LIKE. 6361
51 GET TO. 6348
Otherwise, we don’t get
52 ASKED FOR. 6320
53 LOOKED AT. 6308
54 REFERRING TO. 6272
55 LEARN FROM. 6022
56 ACCOUNTED FOR. 5963
57 CARE FOR. 5912
58 SEARCHING FOR. 5767
59 WRITE ABOUT. 5765
60 HOPING FOR. 5760
61 WORKED WITH. 5629
62 GET INTO. 5591
63 USED FOR. 5534
64 GONE BY. 5216
65 CALLED FOR. 5153
66 AGREE WITH. 5105
67 RECKONED WITH. 5044
68 SPEAK OF. 5030
69 THINKING ABOUT. 4982
70 THOUGHT OF. 4886
71 DIE FOR. 4682
72 GOING TO. 4589
73 DREAMED OF. 4418
74 GO FOR. 4416
75 BEEN TO. 4410
76 WAS LIKE. 4367
77 STANDS FOR. 4326
78 GO WITH. 4287
79 ARE FOR. 4221
80 BASED ON. 4111
81 ENTITLED TO. 3983
82 FEELS LIKE. 3911
83 ASKING FOR. 3865
84 SOUNDS LIKE. 3725
85 INTERACT WITH. 3708
86 HOPE FOR. 3693
87 DREAM OF. 3686
88 LISTENING TO. 3671
89 DESIGNED FOR. 3636
90 CONTEND WITH. 3633
91 APPLYING FOR. 3609
92 STAND FOR. 3601
93 BELONG TO. 3598
94 BENEFIT FROM. 3554
95 PAYING FOR. 3532
96 GETTING INTO. 3512
97 COUNT ON. 3490
98 DO WITHOUT. 3485
99 ADHERED TO. 3463
100 LOOKED AFTER. 3437