"Can we get this over with?"

Question

I am confused about this sentence because it ends in a preposition, something that I thought was not really grammatically correct:

Can we get this over with?

In addition, I haven't found a restatement that would solve this issue. Things like the following don't seem to make sense:

This can we get over
Over with get this
With get this over

So my questions are:
1. Is there a problem with the sentence?
2. What part of speech is "with"?

'Over' is a preposition, too. If it really bothers you, how about "Can we get this over with now?" ? — Mitch, Feb 12 '12 at 00:46
"This is the sort of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put!" — MetaEd, Feb 12 '12 at 00:49

Matt E. Эллен · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-12T03:01:00.150

6

There is no problem with this phrase - it is idiomatic English.
With is part of the compound adjective over with. To be over with means to be finished. As far as I know, it's only ever used with the verb be.
It's fine as it is. You could say "Can we get this finished?".

edited Feb 12 '12 at 03:01

answered Feb 12 '12 at 00:10

Matt E. Эллен

29,137

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 12 '12 at 02:57

Well, if you really want to, you can rewrite it as:

Over with can we get this?

but you end up sounding like you're chanelling Yoda.

So thank you for providing an excellent refutation of the "never end a sentence with a preposition" rule. Next time somebody tries to tell me how to speak English, I'll take a deep breath and say, "Okay. Over with let us get this..." :-)

"Can we get this over with?"

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