Comments on: It’s phrasal verb hell http://beingmrkenny.co.uk/blog/2007/02/its-phrasal-verb-hell/ The site that Mark built Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:13:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: MQ http://beingmrkenny.co.uk/blog/2007/02/its-phrasal-verb-hell/#comment-29046 MQ Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:04:38 +0000 http://beingmrkenny.co.uk/blog/2007/02/its-phrasal-verb-hell/#comment-29046 Ah. It really ought to be "in to". I guess the problem is that at the end of the day clearly "into" has emerged from eliding "in to", which itself created some grammatical consistency elsewhere in the system. Is there a real difference between "go in to the cinema" and "go into the cinema"? ... Well, on reflection, the former seems meaningless somehow. So what's wrong? Ooooh! Another way to look at it is this: phrasal verbs with "in" (eg go in, log in) cannot have direct objects. If you wish to add an object you have to use the non-phrasal verb and use "into" plus the object. That is a really exciting discovery, and I think it will stand up to some user testing now. Ah. It really ought to be “in to”. I guess the problem is that at the end of the day clearly “into” has emerged from eliding “in to”, which itself created some grammatical consistency elsewhere in the system.

Is there a real difference between “go in to the cinema” and “go into the cinema”? … Well, on reflection, the former seems meaningless somehow. So what’s wrong?

Ooooh! Another way to look at it is this: phrasal verbs with “in” (eg go in, log in) cannot have direct objects. If you wish to add an object you have to use the non-phrasal verb and use “into” plus the object.

That is a really exciting discovery, and I think it will stand up to some user testing now.

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