A 1957 story by James Thurber includes a sentence with oddly stranded prepositions. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Stranded Prepositions”
Earlier, we were talking about prepositional pileups, like it’s really coming down up here.
In 1957, James Thurber did something similar in a book. He wrote, the day I got dressed and was about to leave the hospital, I heard a nurse and an intern discussing a patient who had got something in his eye.
It’s a bad city to get something in your eye in, the nurse said. Yes, the intern agreed, but there isn’t a better place to get something in your eye out in.
I really feel sorry for anybody who’s trying to learn English. Those are outstanding.
Outstanding? Yes, in a field.
