Preposition Stranding vs Pied-Piping in Technical English
5 exercises — practise formal pied-piping and informal stranding in technical relative clauses and questions.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence uses formal pied-piping correctly to describe the server referenced in a relative clause?
"This is the server to which the client connects" is correct: pied-piping fronts the preposition "to" together with the relative pronoun "which", producing the formal register expected in technical documentation. Option B strands "to" at the end, which is grammatical but informal, not pied-piping. Option C incorrectly pairs the fronted preposition with "that", but "that" cannot follow a fronted preposition in standard English. Option D places "to which" in the wrong position, after the verb, producing an ungrammatical sentence.
2 / 5
Choose the informally stranded version that is equivalent in meaning to "The API for which this SDK was built is deprecated."
"The API which this SDK was built for is deprecated" is correct: it strands the preposition "for" at the end of the relative clause while keeping the relative pronoun "which" in place, the standard informal alternative to pied-piping. Option B incorrectly combines a fronted preposition with "that", which is ungrammatical. Option C moves "for" to the very end of the whole sentence, detaching it from the relative clause and distorting the meaning. Option D scrambles the word order into an ungrammatical structure.
3 / 5
In a formal technical specification, which question correctly uses pied-piping instead of stranding?
"To which endpoint should the client send the retry request?" is correct: the preposition "to" is pied-piped, fronted together with the wh-word "which endpoint", producing the formal question order appropriate for a specification document. Option B is grammatical but strands "to" at the end, which is the informal alternative, not pied-piping. Option C incorrectly uses "that" after a fronted preposition, which is ungrammatical in a question. Option D keeps statement word order with no inversion, so it is not a properly formed formal question.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly avoids preposition stranding in a formal architecture document?
"The service on which the cache layer depends must remain available" is correct: pied-piping fronts "on" with "which", avoiding stranding and matching the formal tone expected in architecture documentation. Option B strands "on" at the end of the relative clause, which is grammatical but less formal, the opposite of what was asked. Option C wrongly combines a fronted preposition with "that", which is ungrammatical. Option D places "on which" in the wrong position within the sentence, producing an ungrammatical result.
5 / 5
Choose the sentence that correctly strands the preposition in a natural, informal engineering conversation.
"That's the config file the build script relies on" is correct: the relative pronoun is omitted (a common informal choice) and the preposition "on" is stranded at the end of the clause, matching casual spoken engineering register. Option B incorrectly includes both the pied-piped "on which" and a stranded "on", duplicating the preposition. Option C combines a fronted preposition with "that", which is ungrammatical. Option D scrambles the subject and verb, producing an ungrammatical sentence.