Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

No trick. Just an honest question. It's no secret that my personal ideolect allows all three “where … (to, from, at)” options freely. Clearly the “where … at” version is the least strongly required — I tend to avoid it unless required, but have no issue with it — and the “where … from” being the most strongly required. I was just trying to see where your boundaries stand.

I note that the online version (via bartleby.com) of the Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993) allows for both transitive and intrasitive uses of “depart.” As such, the preposition “from” becomes optional in the simplest uses. It specifically references “Our flight departs New York … .” So, “Where does your flight depart?” would be both acceptable, and more terse than “Where does your flight depart from?”

(Bartleby).

In my hearing, the more optional and more questionable “at” of “where … at” tends to express either a stronger emotion (as in “Where is this blasted store AT!”) or suggests the need for great precision, emphasizing location, as in, I suspect, the original questioner's husband's case “Where is the car parked at?” Suggesting perhaps he needs to know more than “on the street” as his answer.

Perhaps of some interest, I even hear the use of "where ... at" in a figurative sense of location as in: "Where is the S&P 500 at?" "Where is the stock market at?" Still, I hear this as conveying a need for an answer with fairly high precision.