How to change a verb into a noun!

Using In and Into, On and Onto

An earlier Hint showed that to and toward are
generally used with verbs showing movement
and that to often shows the result of the movement
while toward shows the direction of the movement.
In addition, the earlier Hint noted that to can be used
for toward, but toward cannot be used for to.

The prepositions in and into and on and onto have
somewhat similar “behavior.”

Into and onto are used with verbs showing movement.
They show both the direction and the result of
the movement.

In and on may be used both with verbs that show
movement and with verbs that do not show movement.
With verbs showing movement, in and on may be
used instead of into and onto (though into and onto
are clearer). In this case, they show both direction
and result. With verbs that do not show movement,
in and on show location: in = inside or within
and on = topside or touching the surface of.

Examples

Fouad dived into / in the lake.

Fouad says that the water that’s in (not into)
the lake is cold.

Chang-Ho threw his keys onto / on the table.

Chang-Ho left his keys on (not onto) the table.

Nadia put the cake into / in the oven.

Nadia will leave the cake in (not into) the oven
until it has finished baking.

The cat jumped onto / on the sofa.

The cat lay on (not onto) the sofa all afternoon.

IN TO vs. INTO:

I. Into is a preposition. In a sentence, the preposition into will be part of a prepositional phrase consisting of into + its object + any modifiers of its objects. The entire phrase it is a part of will function adverbially to modify the verb or verb phrase that precedes the phrase.

1. When he walked into the room, he found that the meeting had already started.

2. Put the toys into the basket.

3. The pumpkin was turned into a carriage.

II. In the phrase in to, in is an adverb, directly modifying a verb, and to is a preposition with its own object. When the word into is used in a sentence where in to is meant, the resulting statement can be absurd.

1. She turned her paper in to the teacher.

vs.

2. She turned her paper into the teacher.

In the second sentence, the paper is transformed–poof!–into the teacher. We’ve all heard the old joke about the magician who was so talented that he could drive down the street and turn into a gas station. Of course, if he just wanted to get gas somewhere, he would turn in to a gas station.

1. Put the cookie back into the jar.

2. I need to turn this book back in to the library.

3. Would you hand this assignment in to the teacher for me?

4. Turn your badge in to the officer at the desk.

5. Cinderella stepped into the carriage.

6. At midnight, the carriage turned back into a pumpkin.