Questions ending with prepositions 1: Who are you waiting ________? about a at to for Answer:for If you arrange to meet someone and you are early, you might have to wait for the other person. You can therefore make the question: 'Who are you waiting for?' 2: A: I had a terrible nightmare last night. B: Oh no, what _______? to about at with Answer:about You can dream or have a nightmare (a bad dream) about something. You can therefore make the longer question: 'What did you dream about?' or the shorter question 'What about?' 3: She's always on the phone - who's she talking ________? to at for about Answer:to We usually say 'talk to' someone, therefore you can make the question: 'Who's she talking to?' 4: A: I can't wait - I'm going on holiday next week. B: Where ________? for holiday destination to at about Answer:to You could ask the longer question: 'Where are you going to?' or the short question 'Where to?' which sounds more natural. 5: What a waste of money! What did you buy that _______? for strange hat to at about Answer:for If you want to ask 'why?' you can also say 'What for?' E.g. 'Why did you do that?' can also be expressed as: 'What did you do that for?'

Prepositions at the end of clauses A preposition often connects two things – a noun, adjective or verb that comes before it and a noun phrase or pronoun (prepositional object) that comes after it. * He was really angry with me. * She was looking at him. * They live in a small village. In some structures we may put the prepositional object at or near the beginning of a clause. This happens especially in four cases: wh-questions: What are you looking at? relative clauses: This is the book that I told you about. passives: I hate being shouted at. infinitive structures: It is a boring place to live in. Wh-questions When a question word is the object of a preposition, the preposition most often comes at the end of the clause. * Who is this present for? (For whom is this present? is extremely formal.) * What are you looking at? (Less formal than At what are you looking?) * Who did you go with? (Less formal than With whom did you go?) * Where did you buy it from? Relative clauses When a relative pronoun is the object of a preposition, the preposition often goes at the end of a clause. * This is the store that I told you about. (Less formal than … about which I told you.) * She is the only woman (who) I have ever really been in love with. (Less formal than … with whom I have ever really been in love.) Passives In passive structures, prepositions go with their verbs. * She was operated on last night. * I hate being shouted at. Infinitive structures Infinitive complements can have prepositions with them. * She needs other children to play with. * We need a place to live in.