3

Which is the correct phrase:

You have 5 days left of your trial.

or:

You have 5 days of your trial left.

tchrist
  • 134,759
Daniel Galasko
  • 133
  • You could also sidestep the issue and go with remaining instead (which also works in both positions). – John Y Sep 02 '14 at 12:59
  • @JohnY also true but I was asking as a matter of interest but thanks:) – Daniel Galasko Sep 02 '14 at 13:03
  • What's interesting is while the sign might point to the left, it may not actually be right. – SrJoven Sep 02 '14 at 15:35
  • Left can be a preposition (as in location in space - and to a lesser extent in time), so perhaps that is contributing to a bias against putting it at the end of a sentence? At any rate, sentences ending with prepositions are just fine. – Patrick M Sep 02 '14 at 18:39
  • @Patrick M No dictionary I've checked in says that 'left' can be a preposition. Can you find one? Can you give a sentence showing 'left' used as a preposition? – Edwin Ashworth Sep 03 '14 at 08:59
  • 1
    @EdwinAshworth beside the bookshelf vs left of the bookshelf might work. It's not listed in a dictionary as such, but in this case, bookshelf doesn't belong to the left, so the preposition of isn't the start of the phrase. – SrJoven Sep 03 '14 at 10:19
  • +1 to SrJoven, @EdwinAshworth preposition: "a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause." Position in space is a relation. When I study language, I examine experience, logic and references, in that order. I'm not perfect, so I hardly expect dictionaries to be either. – Patrick M Sep 03 '14 at 15:13
  • @SrJoven 'on the left of' is certainly a preposition, a compound one. But 'left the bookshelf' (non verbal) doesn't work. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 03 '14 at 16:18
  • @Patrick M I'll take that as a 'no' then: you can't find an example using 'left' as a preposition. It isn't one. The distribution of a word, not just whether it expresses a relation to another word or element in the clause (many words do that), is important in deciding prepositionhood. You can say 'The boy went in / by / to / behind / beside / on top of / to the left of ... the house', but not 'The boy went left the house'. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 03 '14 at 16:20
  • @EdwinAshworth I'm not saying it's a preposition in the example sentence. I'm saying it can be a preposition, and even if it were (which it isn't) you could still end a sentence with it. I say this as a possible explanation of the asker's confusion, not as a statement of fact. – Patrick M Sep 03 '14 at 16:27

1 Answers1

1

Both are fine — although I would say that the second one sounds more natural.

tchrist
  • 134,759
Tim
  • 2,852
  • 1
    Though I'd not disagree with your answer, it would be better to add support from a recognised authority. Admittedly, that doesn't seem an easy task. Dictionaries don't seem to acknowledge the 'be left' (= 'remain') and 'have ... left' constructions, never mind whether prepositional phrases may be placed after the 'left'. As I wouldn't say that 'left' can be claimed to modify any verb or noun hereabouts, I wouldn't like to have to suggest a POS here. I'm possibly stuck with the 'particle' dustbin that I seem to have bought to replace the 'adverb' model. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '14 at 11:26
  • I would like to add a reference too, but I have no idea where to get one... It's one of those things that you sort of know, but don't know why you know... – Tim Sep 02 '14 at 11:34
  • 1
    @EdwinAshworth Dictionaries do not define grammar, so if you forget to apply any on your own, you will find that you will go leaving a great many entries remaining to be discovered: left is an inflection of leave. – tchrist Sep 02 '14 at 12:21
  • @tchrist No, but dictionaries give examples one might expect to be acceptable. As for words formally 'inflections of V', arguably so are many -ing forms and many -en forms, but few people classify them all as verbs. For instance, the very similar 'owing' used in the same way ['There is still some money owing'] is classed by all of AHDEL, Collins and R H K Webster's as 'adjective'. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '14 at 13:42
  • 1
    @Tim That's OK until you sort of know ... wrong. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '14 at 14:54
  • 1
    @EdwinAshworth You seem to suffer from various misunderstandings about what dictionaries are and are not, and do or do not, so it will probably just feed these confusions by way of confirmation bias for you to learn that the OED covers all of this current matter under its sense 3a of *leave, and even includes to be left, with illustrations in both Old and Middle English. Suffice it to say that it leaves no room for doubt — but do please enjoy the Anglo-Saxon Gospels and the Ancrene Riwle* while you’re off bias-confirming. – tchrist Sep 02 '14 at 15:07
  • @tchrist wouldn't it be better for the asker, answerer and community at large to edit that into the question instead of burying it in an argumentative comment? I would love to have answers in the depth and richness of the OED, except for the price (which is admittedly why I'm on EL&U - I have time to contribute, but not money). I expect there are many users in the same category. – Patrick M Sep 02 '14 at 18:46
  • @Patrick M I doubt that even OED has an example comparable to OP's 'You have 5 days left of your trial', with the '5 days of your trial' split by the 'left'. This seems to be more than a little specific to 'left'; the 'split' is less frequent even with 'remaining'. Of course, the cohesiveness of the PP (*/? 3 Knights left of the Round Table) and the weight of the PO (3 days left/remaining of the most wonderful holiday they had ever been on) are also important factors. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '14 at 19:18
  • Honestly, if you say "five days left __ your trial", to me the most natural is "in" rather than "on", but move "left" to the end and the natural one switches to "of". It changes the grammatical analysis if not the practical meaning, but it's curious nonetheless. Is that just me? – user0721090601 Sep 02 '14 at 20:37