By Glenn Dromgoole

It’s one of the first questions you might ask a stranger: “Where are you from?”

Now, I’m a grammar nerd, but not a grammar purist. A purist might insist that you shouldn’t say “Where are you from?” because it ends in a preposition.

So, to be grammatically correct, I suppose I should say, “Where are you from, anyway?” 

What should I say? From where are you? Where from are you? Are from where you?

“How about,” the purist might suggest, “where do you live?”

“But that’s not the same thing,” you might counter (pretty cool, huh, that you “counter” rather than “argue”?). “Where are you from is not the same as where do you live.”

“How is it different?”

“Where are you from means where are you from. Or, where did you grow up, or as you might put it, up where did you grow?”

“Ah, where are your roots?”

“Yes! That’s it. Where are your roots? Where are you from?”

“Why didn’t you say so?”

“I’ve been saying so! Anyway, where are you from, or where are your roots, is very different than where do you live. Where are you from is past tense, to put it in technical grammatical terms. Where do you live is present tense.”

Now that we have that settled, I’ll tell you where I’m from. The short answer is, of course, I’m from Texas. The longer answer is I’m from Sour Lake (where we didn’t often engage in lengthy debates over grammar).

I live in Abilene — and have for nearly 40 years now. It may not be where I’m from – but it sure feels a lot like home. 

Glenn Dromgoole is the author of more than 30 books. He and his wife Carol, who is from Albany, own Texas Star Trading Company on construction-challenged Cypress Street in downtown Abilene.