On occasion, I end up writing sentences that contain a duplicate word, often what is probably a preposition (or better yet, an adposition). The specific example that I just ran into involves a duplicate 'to' in this sentence:
I think we really ought to leave that up to the people we're assigning the label to to judge.
Is this proper grammar? If it is so technically, is it proper style to leave it like that, or should it be rephrased, so one doesn't stumble over it when reading?
Should there be a comma between the two?
Best Answer
While your sentence
is not grammatically incorrect, it would be considered inelegant by many writers, especially because it involves a duplicate preposition. (It is not uncommon to find "...had had..." in formal contexts and this is not usually frowned upon.) So, you are right your construction is not stylistically preferred. Also, there should not be a comma between the duplicates.
Here are possible revisions in increasing order of elegance: