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I have a sentence:

It can be derived from either A or B.

But I’m not sure how to ask the following question:

Which one of them can it be derived from?

Is that ok, or would it be better if it were like this:

From which one of them can it be derived?

tchrist
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Balázs Németh
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    Either is correct, the one with the stranded preposition at the end is more colloquial, and the next one with the pied-piped preposition (from which) is less colloquial. You can leave out the one if you like in either sentence; it makes the sentence slightly less colloquial. The more syntactic work one requires of the listener, the less colloquial the speech. – John Lawler Feb 19 '13 at 17:08
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    Also related is QUESTION SIXTEEN http://english.stackexchange.com/q/16 not to mention http://english.stackexchange.com/q/22933 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/16024 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/27806 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/54342 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/76209 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/57778 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/84016 http://english.stackexchange.com/a/90728 and doubtless a bazillion more. – tchrist Feb 19 '13 at 17:42
  • @JohnLawler Perfect answer in your comment. Is that a comment because of the potential duplicates? Just want to make sure I have my head on straight about the SOP. And question 16! – livresque Feb 19 '13 at 18:00
  • Pay no attention to SOP. There is no real distinction between comments and answers except for size and difficulty of editing. Despite all the hooraw about "duplication", most of the supposedly duplicate A.s that get pointed to are not relevant to the Q.s that they get linked to. I don't bother with an official answer unless there isn't one that addresses a specific question I can answer in detail. Most of the questions posted here aren't like that. – John Lawler Feb 19 '13 at 21:10

1 Answers1

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Prohibitions against ending sentences and clauses with prepositions exist in Latin, but aren't really sensible in English. Either of those forms is correct, though personally I would like dropping the word "one" from either.

Jeff Yoak
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