The last person I told my idea to thought I was nuts. Why is the preposition required? Or is it optional?
vs.
The last person I told my idea thought I was nuts.
and no preposition here either:
He was the last person I told my idea. He thought I was nuts.
I told him my idea. He thought I was nuts.
Please check my sentence
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tiorthan
Re: Please check my sentence
In English an indirect object can be replaced by a prepositional object:
I told him my idea.
I told my idea to him.
Both sentences hold identical meaning. When using an indirect object the word order is usually essential as it is always subject, predicate, indirect object, direct object. This word order rule allows the recipient to parse any such sentence without having to fully understand it.
Now we front the indirect object:
Him I told my idea.
Him I told my idea to.
"Him" followed by "I" is easily identified as a non-subject (being a pronoun with an objective case it can be identified as some kind of object, but that's not the case for other nouns). So what is it?
With the unbound preposition at the end of the sentence you can automatically identify it as a prepositional object since unbound prepositons at the end of a sentence only ever occur with fronted prepositional objects.
Without the preposition at the end you have to have at leas some understanding of the sentence which is usually a higher level function in language processing and thus more difficult.
That being said, it is not wrong to ommit the preposition. Fronting can occur for almost every part of a sentence (in one way or another).
I told him my idea.
I told my idea to him.
Both sentences hold identical meaning. When using an indirect object the word order is usually essential as it is always subject, predicate, indirect object, direct object. This word order rule allows the recipient to parse any such sentence without having to fully understand it.
Now we front the indirect object:
Him I told my idea.
Him I told my idea to.
"Him" followed by "I" is easily identified as a non-subject (being a pronoun with an objective case it can be identified as some kind of object, but that's not the case for other nouns). So what is it?
With the unbound preposition at the end of the sentence you can automatically identify it as a prepositional object since unbound prepositons at the end of a sentence only ever occur with fronted prepositional objects.
Without the preposition at the end you have to have at leas some understanding of the sentence which is usually a higher level function in language processing and thus more difficult.
That being said, it is not wrong to ommit the preposition. Fronting can occur for almost every part of a sentence (in one way or another).
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Delfino
Re: Please check my sentence
Thank you for the provided explanations,
although I'm not sure I can remember it all.
Grammar is not my strong side.
but I prefer it that way and I'm happy to hear it's not wrong.
The last person I told my idea () thought I was nuts.
Does that say something about me (a higher level function in language processing...)
or is it a common result of how foreigners like me learn English?
although I'm not sure I can remember it all.
Grammar is not my strong side.
A native speaker on ( http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/show/1318 ) said it is sounds weird without the preposition,tiorthan hat geschrieben:Without the preposition at the end you have to have at least some understanding of the sentence
which is usually a higher level function in language processing and thus more difficult.
That being said, it is not wrong to omit the preposition.
but I prefer it that way and I'm happy to hear it's not wrong.
The last person I told my idea () thought I was nuts.
Does that say something about me (a higher level function in language processing...)
or is it a common result of how foreigners like me learn English?
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Keswick (Contributor)
Re: Please check my sentence
I think it depends on the native speaker as well. My partner said it sounds weird to him WITH the preposition 
.
.