English Prepositions: IN | INTO | IN TO | ON | ONTO | ON TO - plus TEST!
In. On. Into. Onto. Into. Onto. The differences between in and into, on and onto, are pretty simple.
But the differences between into and into, on to and onto, are a little bit more complicated.
In today's lesson I'm going to go through all of this. And at the end of this lesson I have
a test for you with 12 questions. Let me know in the comments how you did on the test!
Did you get 12 out of 12? 7 out of 12? Let me know. My name is Arnel, let's start.
The location of an action or object. The change of a location. The cat is in the Box. The cat is
on the box. These prepositions clearly show you the location of the object. In this case, the cat.
The cat jumped onto the box. These prepositions clearly show you that there has been a change
from A to B. Think about it like go to. I am going to school. We went to the beach.
To really introduces that destination doesn't it?
Some of you might be thinking in, or inside?
With this example there is no difference. The cat is in the box, the cat is inside the box.
Same, both can show the location. The milk is in the fridge, the milk is inside the fridge. Same,
but inside is used to emphasize completely covered. Like in a box, container, or... Look at this article
from archeology.org: Inside King Tut's Tomb. A Tomb is a large stone structure or a small room where
someone is buried. So inside makes sense right? Because you are completely covered in a tomb.
So in and inside both show location, but inside is more precise.
This picture was taken in Spain. We always use in with a city or a country.
I cannot say this picture was taken inside Spain, because when you go to
a country you're in the country, you're not really "in" a country.
I stepped on a jellyfish. Where did I step? On a jellyfish.
I moved the TV into the bedroom.
She carefully placed the flowers onto the coffin. The location. The change of location. Let's compare.
He backflipped into the water.
We walked on the boat. We walked onto the boat. Okay, so far with change I've used location, from A to B.
But with into, we can talk about a different kind of change, we can talk about a transformation.
A caterpillar turns into a butterfly, there it's an obvious transformation.
I had to translate all of these documents into English, another transformation. Let's keep going.
With into, here's another exception. When we use into we can also use this to speak about an impact.
Okay. A bird just flew into the window. There's an obvious impact.
Cars are driven into walls to test their safety. In both of these examples it's clear
we're speaking about an impact, we're not talking about going into something.
In and on don't always need an object. Many times the object is optional, it's not necessary.
Into and onto always need an object. For example, come into my office. Come into my office.
Come in. Come in. Can I just use in? I'm showing a change right, from A to B?
In this second example here it's fine, it's perfect, because it's already clear, the
person is speaking about the office. It doesn't need to be repeated. Let's do another example,
he walked onto the stage without his microphone. He walked on without his microphone. Again, I don't
need to repeat onto the stage because in the conversation or in the text it's already clear.
With these verbs here you can use in/into or on/onto interchangeably, and there's no difference in
meaning. Put the ice cream in the freezer. Put the ice cream into the freezer. Both are fine.
He threw the pizza on the roof. He threw the pizza onto the roof. Again, there's no difference here.
Mini review: In and on show the location of an object or action. The laundry is in the basket.
The basket is on the washing machine. Into and onto to show a change or a transformation.
I decided to move the washing machine into the kitchen.
First, we had to lift the washing machine onto a dolly before we could move it.
Into can also be used to talk about an impact, like a bird flew into the window. Into and onto
always need an object. It started to rain so I brought the laundry into the house.
Many times in and on don't need an object if it's already clear what we're talking about. It started
to rain so I brought the laundry in. With some verbs we can use in/into, on/onto interchangeably.
Put the dirty laundry in the washing machine. Put the dirty laundry into the washing machine.
Hmm, many times if the situation is obvious native speakers might
use these prepositions interchangeably. For example,
Look in my eyes and tell me the truth. Look into my eyes and tell me the truth.
Using in or into it's really clear what I mean. But you really do want to follow these rules.
These four done. But what about in to, what about on to? This can be a little bit confusing because
um in spoken English it doesn't matter, it sounds the same. This is all about written English.
We all chipped in to buy Frankie a present. Try the dress on to see if it fits you.
Chip in is a phrasal verb. Try on is a phrasal verb.
Chip in means lots of people pay for something together, usually we're talking about a gift.
So if there are five people in your office and they all chip in ten dollars,
you have fifty dollars to buy someone a gift. That's to chip in.
Try on, this means you put clothes on to see if they look good, to see if they fit.
To buy, to see, these are infinitives. Your infinitive is to plus base verb.
To by, to see, to go, to play, to eat, to fall, to dance, to try, to fake. I think you get the idea.
Why do we use an infinitive? In these examples the infinitive is showing us why we do the action.
We all chipped in why to buy Frankie a present. Try the dress on why to see if it fits you.
So the phrasal verb and the infinitive are two completely different things.
Into? No. Onto? No. There are so many phrasal verbs in English,
let's choose a different one without in, or on, so you can really see what I mean.
We went out to celebrate my birthday. Go out. Go out is a great phrasal verb. This means you leave
the house to do something fun, something social, like going to a restaurant or going to a club.
I have my phrasal verb go out and my infinitive, to celebrate.
We wouldn't write: We went outto celebrate my birthday. Yes there are hundreds of phrasal verbs
in English, but I do have a lesson on 100 super common phrasal verbs that you can use day to day!
I also wrote a blog post on how to learn phrasal verbs easily, I'll put both of these links down
below for you. Okay, to isn't always part of an infinitive. To can also be a preposition.
The student handed his essay in to the teacher.
Take a booklet and pass the stack on to the person sitting next to you.
The mayor decided not to give in to the protesters demands. We have our phrasal verbs
and our prepositions. There's no need to connect them.
In the first sentence if I say, the student handed his essay in after the deadline. Again,
these are separate things. Nobody would ever write the student handed his essay in after the deadline.
A couple of times in this lesson I said separate your phrasal verb and the to
infinitive, separate your phrasal verb and to preposition.
But some phrasal verbs already have into and onto as their preposition.
Here's a quick list I got from wiktionary.org, all of these phrasal verbs already end in into.
Into is part of the phrasal verb. Here's a list of phrasal verbs with onto.
Again, onto is already part of the phrasal verb, and you don't need to know all of the phrasal
verbs in English to understand today's grammar. You just need to be aware of this.
Okay, last thing before another mini review and the test. Common question:
Please log in to your student account. Please log into your student account. Which one is correct?
The first one is correct, log in is a phrasal verb. Log in to Facebook, log in to tick tock, Instagram
if you're having trouble with logging in to your account, learn how to get login and password help.
Mini note login as one word, is an adjective or noun. That's a bit different.
But log into is really common, you might see this in an email or on a website. You can log into our
website via the link we sent you. This is so common that I think many people many native
speakers reading this, would never see that it's a mistake. I just want you to be aware of this.
Last mini review before the test: In and on do not need to be connected to, to the infinitive,
or to the preposition. But some phrasal verbs already have into and onto as part of them.
You need to look at the full sentence to see which one you need. And that's what we're going
to try to do in the test. Here is my test. Actually I should say here is your test!
I've highlighted the prepositions from today's lesson, but you need to look at the complete
sentence to match all these together correctly. Let's do one example together. Number one, location.
Mm-hmm, you have a mosquito on your arm. Here on is showing the location of the mosquito.
Can you connect the rest of the explanations to the examples? Pause the video to do this.
Okay, here are the answers. How did you do? Please let me know in the comments below, I really do
want to hear from you, and do you have any are there any other prepositions you confuse? Let
me know. I hope this lesson was helpful, thank you so much for watching I'll see you next time! Bye!
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