where

[aysaa]

Hello,

I have some problems about 'where' and prepositions. Please help me.Because I have seen the two style in the internet.

1) Where are you looking at?
or
Where are you looking?

2) I know where you belong to
or
I know where you belong.

Are the prepositions necessary in those sentence like them?

 

[Barb_D]

No, and in fact, they're wrong.

 

[aysaa]

Can't we construct a sentence such as 'where are you looking at?' ? Why?

 

[emsr2d2]

Can't we construct a sentence such as 'where are you looking at?' ? Why?

Because in this context, you don't look at a place, you look at a thing.

What are you looking at?
I'm looking at a car.

What are you looking at?
I'm looking at my book.

I can see a polar bear.
I can't see it. Where are you looking?
I'm looking over there.

I can't find a car I want to buy.
Where are you looking?
I'm looking in the newspaper "For Sale" column and in car showrooms.

"To look" and "to look at" are slightly different verbs.

 

[BobK]

Can't we construct a sentence such as 'where are you looking at?' ? Why?

Because in that question the word where means 'at what place'. 'At what place are you looking at' is obviously wrong. People do do it, but it's not right.

If it refers to a thing, the question is 'What are you looking at?', but if it refers to a place, the question is 'Where are you looking?'.

b

 

[emsr2d2]

Not according to this source: Grammar Girl : Ending a Sentence With a Preposition :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™

I'm not sure which point in that link you want us to look at. It's true that if you can leave out the preposition then you should. Her example of that is:

Where are you at?

The preposition is unnecessary because the question "Where are you?" is correct, acceptable and makes sense. In BrE you wouldn't hear "Where are you at?" anyway.

There is nothing in that link that suggests that "Where are you looking at?" is a natural question. Some sentences/questions can end in a preposition and some can't.

 

[BobSmith]

That's why I deleted it right after I posted it. I misread the post. Geez, you're quick on the draw.

 

[aysaa]

So many thanks to all of you... I found lots of sentences when searching 'where are you looking at?' in Google. For this reason I asked whether that is wrong or not.

 

[emsr2d2]

So many thanks to all of you... I found lots of sentences when searching 'where are you looking at?' in Google. For this reason I asked whether that is wrong or not.

I've said this before and no doubt I'll say it again. You can find examples of absolutely anything on Google. That doesn't make it right! ;-)