Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

in to or into?

When do you use “in to” versus “into”?

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in to is used when the following word is an infinitive.

i.e. come in to warm up, it's cold outside.

while into is a preposition refering to a direction of movement or action.

i.e. Please put the oranges into the box.

There is more, but this is a simple explanation. I hope it helps.

EFL_Geek Jun-04-2005

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How about "on" Vs. "onto" EFL_Geek?
Please explain.

Unggit_Tjitradjaja Jun-06-2005

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Same rules apply. "Onto" is a preposition, you only use "on to" if one of the words is not a preposition i.e. part of a predicate/infinitive.

IngisKahn1 Jun-06-2005

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I speak perfect English and that is one of those things that native speakers just know. EFL Geek is correct but I couldn't think of that myself.

Steve1 Jun-17-2005

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> "Onto" is a preposition, you only use "on to"
> if one of the words is not a preposition i.e.
> part of a predicate/infinitive.

What about "I plan to continue on to graduate school"?

bubbha Feb-18-2006

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