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I would like to know whether this is correct:

He uses a car instead of a bus.

What does he use a car instead of?

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John V
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  • "Instead of what does he use a car?" sounds distorted and unnatural in my view - despite my aversion to "of" at the end of a sentence! – TrevorD Jul 09 '13 at 12:31
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    @TrevorD What aversion? CGEL reports: “All modern usage manuals, even the sternest and stuffiest, agree with descriptive and theoretical linguists on this: it would an absurdity to hold that someone who says What are you looking at? or What are you talking about? or Put this back where you got it from is not using English in a correct and normal way.” – tchrist Jul 09 '13 at 12:41
  • Also is "Instead of what does he use a car" grammatical? – John V Jul 09 '13 at 12:44
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    Related to and almost certain duplicate of question #16 at this site, amongst others: http://english.stackexchange.com/q/16 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/10224 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/71866 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/64421 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/19020 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 – tchrist Jul 09 '13 at 12:46
  • @tchrist "What aversion?" - My aversion! I purposely avoided commenting on whether my aversion is logical, on whether the usage is correct, and on other prepositions. I suspect that we all have phrases that we don't like or which 'grate', irrespective of whether they are 'correct grammar'. Incidentally, I did also look for possible duplicates but couldn't find anything that seemed appropriate - you're no doubt a lot more familiar with what's on this site than I am. – TrevorD Jul 09 '13 at 13:12
  • Is "Instead of what does he use a car" grammatical? It is as far as I know (but, as I admitted, I don't like it and wouldn't use it) - but I'm open to someone explaining to me if and why it isn't grammatical. – TrevorD Jul 09 '13 at 13:15

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Yes, that is perfectly fine. It is an instance of preposition stranding per Wikipedia:

Preposition stranding, sometimes called P-stranding or dangling, is the syntactic construction in which a preposition with an object occurs somewhere other than immediately adjacent to its object. (The preposition is then described as stranded, hanging or dangling.) This construction is widely found in Germanic languages, including English and the Scandinavian languages.

It then specifically points out Wh-movement as one of the places where this occurs, and gives the example of

What are you talking about?

For more about this see “An internet pilgrim’s guide to stranded prepositions” on the Language Log. Pay especial attention to the part about pied piping making for awkward and pretentious-sounding sentences.

tchrist
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