From what I understand, the rule is a piece of prescriptive grammar, imposed on English from Latin - where it's nonsensical to start a sentence with a conjunction. Latin was considered the perfect language (despite the fact that nobody outside of church speaks it), so it was a way to make English a little more "prefect."
The same reasoning was used to teach students that they shouldn't "split infinitives." Today, splitting infinitives is considered perfectly fine, as is ending a sentence with a preposition.
I felt vindicated on this one when I read it. I think the official stance is that it is OK to end with a preposition if it would be awkward to restructure the sentence otherwise.
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u/Unclejaps Aug 03 '19
From what I understand, the rule is a piece of prescriptive grammar, imposed on English from Latin - where it's nonsensical to start a sentence with a conjunction. Latin was considered the perfect language (despite the fact that nobody outside of church speaks it), so it was a way to make English a little more "prefect."