• kneelknee 🐖
    link
    fedilink
    English
    41 year ago

    Go back to whence you came

    Question: is “to whence” allowed/correct? I thought “whence” always goes with “from”?

    • jonhanson
      link
      fedilink
      61 year ago

      It’s correct, as whence means “from where”, so adding “from” would be redundant.

      • kneelknee 🐖
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        TIL! So if you replace “whence” with “from where”, is “go back to from where you came” grammatically correct?

        Also, you’re answer prompted me to search, and I found this neat answer about the history of whence vs from whence; apparently from whence has been (mis)used for centuries!

        • jonhanson
          link
          fedilink
          31 year ago

          Perhaps I should have been more clear. I didn’t mean it’s a direct substitution for “from where”, just that that’s its meaning. A grammatical translation of the sentence would be “go back to where you came from”.

    • kneelknee 🐖
      link
      fedilink
      English
      11 year ago

      TIL! So if you replace “whence” with “from where”, is “go back to from where you came” grammatically correct?

      Also, you’re answer prompted me to search, and I found this neat answer about the history of whence vs from whence; apparently from whence has been (mis)used for centuries!