English is famous for its dangling prepositions, and Winston Churchill spoke for lots of English-speakers when he said something like, “The rule of the dangling preposition is a rule up with which I cannot put.”

Some people debate whether he said those exact words, but if he was like most other people, he made good use of a good line when he found it, and he probably said it in many variations. It really is a great comment on English grammar.

Unless they’re weirdos, people usually use one way of talking and another way of writing. The rules of written language are considered the official ones, but most of us don’t care so much about them when we are talking, and it is truly WEIRD when people insist on speaking according to the rules of proper writing.

Spanish uses a few dangling prepositions. For instance, to say that one group of people is always the group working for another, we might say, “Siempre trabajan para.”  They’re always working for.  (Emphasis on “for”.)

Siempre tratan de.  They’re always trying to.  (Emphasis on “trying” with no success.)

Siempre vienen de.  They’re always coming from.  (Emphasis on “from”, never going “to”.)

These normal examples of Spanish, but they are not used often, nothing anywhere close to the every-other-moment way we do in English.  You can almost say the dangling preposition doesn’t occur in Spanish, but only almost.  If you want to talk like a textbook, that’s your choice.  If you want to sound like you actually know the spoken language, you’ll dangle an occasional preposition like a real pro.