# EN: Where are you going (to)? - preposition



## yucca

Bonjour, je me pose une question: j'ai déjà vu "Where are you going" et "Where are you going to?"  De même, j'ai déjà lu "Where have you ever been" et "Where have you ever been to?"
je voudrais donc savoir s'il y a, généralement, une différence entre la question sans "to" et celle avec "to". pourquoi les 2 existent-ils? est-ce une différence de niveau de langue? ou quelque chose qui serait lié à l'anglais UK et à l'anglais US? ou est-ce que, finalement, l'un vaut l'autre?
je vous remercie! j'avoue de ne pas comprendre ce petit point de grammaire.
  Yucca


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## Oranges&Lemons

c'est beaucoup plus familier de dire "where are you going?" et " where have you been?" *sans *le "to"


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## yucca

Merci pour la réponse!
j'avoue que je ne m'étais jamais posé la question avant de voir que les deux existaient. 
Sans le "to", c'est souvent ce que je vois à la fac, en anglais!


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## savannah

yucca said:


> est-ce une différence de niveau de langue?  Yucca


 

Bonjour, Yucca...

Oui, tu as rasion, c’est une différence de niveau de lange—c’est familier—et aussi, c’est une question du region chez nous, (à l’US).  On trouve cet usage surtout au sud des Etats-Unis, comme en Georgia ou Mississippi, etc.  Au sud, on met souvent les prépositions à la fin d’une phrase.  Mais c’est pas du tout correct!  Queleques autres exemples:  Where’s that book at?  Put your clothes up!  Put the light out.


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## RocketGirl

I'm not 100% sure, but to me it sounds absolutely wrong to have the word "to" at the end of either of those sentences.  I think that it's just one of those things that gets said, but that isn't acutally proper English.


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## savannah

Oranges&Lemons said:


> c'est beaucoup plus familier de dire "where are you going?" et " where have you been?" *sans *le "to"


 
Je crois que Oranges & Lemons veut dire plus généralement employé, plus normal, plus accepté, etc.  Mettre les prépositions à la fin de la phrase, c’est familier dans le sens de l’informel.


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## misadro

"Where are you going to, my pretty maid," he asked .. beginning of an old rhyme .. however .. "to" sounds rather strange in the second example


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## jessica78

It is 100% INCORRECT English to say "Where are you going to?" 

This phenomenon is called "dangling preposition".  It is commonly heard, especially in very casual conversation or amongst those with less education.  

"Where are you going?" is correct.  Similarly, you will here people say "Who are you talking to" or "What are you thinking about?"   In grammatically proper English, you should say "To whom are you talking? " or "About what are you thinking?" 

When people leave the preposition at the end of a sentence, they are breaking the rules of grammar, therefore rendering the sentence more "casual", voire incorrect!


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## Cath.S.

I don't think the problem comes from_ to_ being at the end of those specific sentences, since you would not say "where to have you been" nor "where to are you going" either, would you?
On the subject of dangling prepositions, Shakespeare himself is known to have used them.


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## savannah

jessica78 said:


> It is commonly heard, especially in very casual conversation or amongst those with less education.


 
Now, now, jessica78, just a note of caution.  While I agree that it is technically incorrect to place prepositions at the end of sentences (at least if we're speaking in terms of prescriptive grammar), I would hate to see such usage abolished.  It adds a great deal of colloquial charm and regional flavor.  As a Southerner, I would not dangle my prepositions in a professional setting outside the South, but when I'm at home among friends or en famille, I usually speak this way (as do many of my highly-educated Southern friends and family members).  And just for the record, I have a Princeton degree.


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## savannah

egueule said:


> since you would not say "where to have you been" nor "where to are you going" either, would you?
> On the subject of dangling prepositions, Shakespeare himself is known to have used them.


 
No, but the "to" is implied: "to where have you been" or "to where are you going." Think of it in terms of the German directional prepositions like "woher." In English, we've lost a real sense of the "understood/implied" preposition, but it's there nevertheless. And of course, Southerners have preserved it in their colloquial speech

And then of course, who are we to argue with the Bard?


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## jessica78

I agree that in the south people are more casual, even in professional settings.  However, in the north, people who speak that way all the time and don't think there is anything wrong with it tend not to have degrees from Princeton.  

I was merely pointing out that there is a grammar rule, that it's not simply a question of casual or formal, as suggested by earlier postings.

I live in the South as well and also have degrees from top universities.


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## yucca

Ma question m'amène à d'autres questionnements! je ne pensais pas que, par exemple, "Who are you talking to" était incorrect. On apprend justement que c'est mieux, "plus anglais", de dire ça que de dire "To whom are you talking? ".
je ne pensais pas, non plus, que "put the light out" était mauvais grammaticalement. Dans cette logique, "Turn on the radio" serait donc mieux que "turn the radio on"? on nous dit que c'est plus ou moins la même chose.
En ce qui concerne la question initiale, je vois qu'il y a des avis différents. Peut-être que l'usage n'est pas le même dans les différents pays anglophones? 
En tout cas, je suis la discussion! Avant de la lancer, j'ai posé la question à mon professeur de grammaire anglaise et il s'est sauvé en courant. Il a juste eu le temps, dans sa fuite, de me dire "oui, oui, c'est la même chose", avec le "to" ou sans le "to". mouais.


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## Cath.S.

> "Who are you talking to" était incorrect. On apprend justement que c'est mieux, "plus anglais", de dire ça que de dire "To whom are you talking? ".


C'est la théorie, et la pratique des gens les plus à cheval sur les règles, mais cela ne correspond pas à l'usage général.


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## RocketGirl

yucca said:


> En ce qui concerne la question initiale, je vois qu'il y a des avis différents. Peut-être que l'usage n'est pas le même dans les différents pays anglophones?



Much of the discussion was about the northern vs southern United States.  I think we all agree that using "to" at the end of a sentence is for all intents and purposes incorrect, although you will hear it anyway.

If you were to say it in conversation, I doubt anyone would correct you, although it is not proper English.


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## ChiMike

yucca said:


> Bonjour, je me pose une question: j'ai déjà vu "Where are you going" et "Where are you going to?" De même, j'ai déjà lu "Where have you ever been" et "Where have you ever been to?"
> je voudrais donc savoir s'il y a, généralement, une différence entre la question sans "to" et celle avec "to". pourquoi les 2 existent-ils? est-ce une différence de niveau de langue? ou quelque chose qui serait lié à l'anglais UK et à l'anglais US? ou est-ce que, finalement, l'un vaut l'autre?
> je vous remercie! j'avoue de ne pas comprendre ce petit point de grammaire.
> Yucca


 
The difference in these sentences is accounted for by the fact that the word "whither", like the word "whence", has now fallen from the vocabulary of everyday spoken English. For the former (whither: to where), the language (in analogy to French) can almost always do without it. "Where are you going" is now understood as directional: "Where are you going to?" (in English until the end of the 18th century: "Whither are you going?"). However, since the interrogative "where", when expressing direction, is now generally understood as "where to..", the usual substitution for "whence" cannot merely be "where" ("Where are you coming?" is not used). Just as in French, a locative is felt to be necessary: "D'où est-ce que vous venez?" "Where are you coming FROM?" (Older: Whence are you coming? - And please note, for those who insist that "prepositions" (these are actually DIRECTIONAL ADVERBS!! (TO AND FRO - German: HIN UND HER) should not be placed at the end of the sentence, that no one but the falsely overcorrect says: "From where are you coming? If that construction is used, anyone with any knowledge of the language would tell the speaker to use: WHENCE). Because this form "coming from" is the usual form, many speakers still use the "going to" form insteand of just dropping the "to". And, of course, there is the simple abbreviated question: "Where to?" asked by every taxi driver and, for those of us who can still afford just to drive around for fun, "Let's go for a ride. Where to?".

"Where are you going?", however, is now regarded as the standard for writing, but "where are you coming from" and, to ask about place of origin, "Where are you from?" (I'm from Chicago) are standard for the questions which once began with "Whence" (and "Where are you from" was: "Whence come you?").


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## savannah

Very well-said, ChiMike   And thanks for the reminder about whither and whence.  It's precisely what I was getting _at , _albeit in much lazier, less thorough fashion.  (And of course you're quite right about the fact that they're adverbs and not technically prepositions; I should have been clearer, but was afraid of opening up yet another can of worms).


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## yucca

Wow!
C'est devenu beaucoup plus clair, d'un coup ! 
A tous, merci pour vos réponses!
Et un merci spécial à Chimike, pour les explications fort intéressantes et très claires.


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