When is "in" out?

Don't be embarassed. If we don't answer it means we don't know or can't formulate a good explanation. This post might do better in the Grammar for Grasshoppers. (I'd post a link, but I'm not computer savy enough to do that!) It's in The Conference Room.

Oh, and welcome to AW.

It's a movement word that doesn't get split.

"I went into the house."
"I'm in the house."

"I broke it into five pieces."
"It is in five pieces."

This is a good question for the Grammar forum.

I'll move this down to grammar for our gurus!

Moving a chair in the dining room is different from moving a chair into the dining room. "Into" denotes entry, whether literal or figurative, but "in" is often used with the same meaning without shocking most readers. "The mayor got into trouble when he parked in a red zone" is correct; "got in trouble" is common.

Here´s another of those little gems and as usual it depends on context. In is generally about position, as reph said, WHERE they are (IN the dining room) and into is about destination or direction (move the chair INTO the dining room), or WHERE THEY ARE GOING, as reph said, movement.

But we need to be careful. Some verbs (e.g. throw, jump, push) can take both in and into in a directional sense. General guide is we use into when we think of the movement itself and in when we think of where the thing will end up. E.g. "Put this into a jar" or "Put this in the fridge"

Hope that has caused more confusion than before

Into

IThinkICan29 said:

Ok, this may be the world's craziest (dumbest) question but...eh...I'm crazy so who cares. When it comes to "in", "into", and "in to" (not sure if it's possible), what is the general rule? Please feel free to throw in some examples or dos and don'ts.

Thanks!

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Think of it this way:

He turned his gun in to the police officer.
He turned his gun into the police officer.

See the difference?

This may explain the actual rule.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]Into[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] is a preposition. In a sentence, the preposition [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]
into[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] will be part of a [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]prepositional phrase[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] consisting of [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]
into + its object + any modifiers of its objects[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]. The entire phrase it is a part of will function [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]adverbially[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] to modify the [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]
verb[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] or [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]verb phrase[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] that precedes the phrase.

[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]In the phrase [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]in to[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow], [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]in[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] is an [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]adverb,[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] directly modifying a [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]verb[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow], and [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]to[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] is a [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]preposition[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] with its own [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]object[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]. When the word i[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]nto[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] is used in a sentence where [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]in to[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow] is meant, the resulting statement can be absurd. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow]

[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, adobe-helvetica, Arial Narrow][/FONT]

IThinkICan29 said:

.I heard the teacher from Charlie Brown....wah wah wah wah wah wah...in to preposition....wah wah wah.....LOL

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I sound just like that in real life.