Into vs. In to: When to Use Into or In to (with Useful Examples)

Into vs. in to! As if words that look and sound almost alike weren’t enough, the English language also has examples of words that are exactly the same, but the one is spelled like one word and the other as two. “Into” and “In to” is one example. When you’re speaking, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know the difference because nobody will ever notice that you’ve said something wrong. When you’re writing, however, it’s important to know that these two aren’t interchangeable and that they actually are very different.

Into vs. In to

INTO is a preposition that indicates movement inside or shows that something is within something. IN TO, on the other hand, isn’t a combined phrase. These are just two words that sometimes find themselves standing side by side in a sentence. In many cases, “in” is the part of a phrasal verb, while “to” simply follows it.

Examples:

• Don’t put new wine into old bottles.
• I just wanted to get in to see some free baseball.

When to Use Into or In to

Take a look at the sentence, “Mary put her letter into the blue envelope”. Here, into shows that something has been placed inside of something else, i.e. the letter inside the blue envelope. This is why it’s spelled as one word.

What about the sentence, “James dropped in to say hello”? Here, James isn’t going inside of something, and this is why in to are two words, not one. It’s also possible to rephrase this sentence and say, “James dropped in, in order to say hello”. If you can squish “in order” between “in” and “to”, then certainly you should spell them as two separate words.

In the modern world of technology, you can “tune in” to your favorite radio station or “log in” to a website that you find interesting. In both these cases, “in” and “to” are two neighboring words that don’t need to become one.

There’s also one exception that you should be aware of because there’s one time when into doesn’t have to do with going inside or within, but still has to be spelled as one word. This is when you’re talking about a change or a transformation. For instance, when you say, “Cinderella’s coach turned back into a pumpkin”, “into” is one word.

Into vs. In to Examples

• The procession moved into the church.
• He got into his car and drove off.
• My secretary will see you into my office.
• Tuck your shirt into your trousers.
• We turned the table sideways to get it into the room.
• She cut the meat into small pieces.
• Don’t forget to tune in to our special election program this evening.
• Do you know how to log in to the system?
• I just put Danny in to see what he can do.
• We come in to Heathrow at nine in the morning.
• When a company goes out of business, officials usually move in to take control.
• They want to come in to Morgans with a few people.

Difference between Into vs. In to | Picture

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Into vs. In to: When to Use Into vs. In to

Last Updated on March 15, 2021