"without" at the end of a sentence

Question

This is something you can't get around without.

Is the final word here ok? I believe it is as valid as "with" at the end of a sentence. But haven't found confirmation yet.

Answer 1

Yes, it's fine. This is a common result of joining two clauses with a relative pronoun. Let's break the process down.

The deep structure is roughly:

This is something. You can't get around without it.

Next step, we replace "it" with the relative pronoun "that".

This is something. You can't get around without that.

Then we front the relative pronoun, leaving a blank space behind, and join the two sentences together:

This is something that you can't get around without ________.

This sentence is fine as it is, but English allows us to optionally remove the relative pronoun:

This is something _______ you can't get around without ________.

And we're done!

Some people insist there's a rule that says you cannot end a sentence with a preposition, but there's actually no such rule.

Answer 2

Yes, "without" can work at the end of a sentence:

This is something you can't get around without.

and does at the end of the example. Whether it works depends on the sentence, of course.