
So, now that we’re into the helpful part of the podcast and no longer talking about women in love with the alligators that attacked them or dogs and cats breaking records together, we thought we’d take a quick look at a big grammar mistake.
And that’s when INTO is one word or two.
Is it . . .
Dude, I am so into you.
Or is it . . .
Dude, I am so in to you.
Here’s how it works.
INTO all as one word is a preposition, which means it’s showing MOVEMENT of one thing to another thing.
But IN TO (two words) has two grammatical bits going on right there. The IN is an adverb and the TO is the preposition. And they aren’t like snuggled up in bed like a cohabitating couple, they just tend to show up in the sentence next to each other.
Here are some examples:
INTO as one word:
Baby, I made it into the office today, but only just barely because… cough… you know.
Lordie, look what Santa put into your stocking.
That alligator went into that woman’s head, man, like took total control.
INTO usually tells you WHERE something is happening.
IN TO as two words
Look, I am standing in to make a statement to our senator.
Santa came in to say a hearty hello.
The dog and cat rode in to break that record on that damn scooter.
IN TO usually can be substituted with IN ORDER TO.
Easy, right? Consider yourself grammatical.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Two words are different than one.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
Sometimes taking chances pays off (like when you jump on a scooter with a cat) and sometimes it doesn’t (like when you bite your handler’s hand). Choose your risks wisely. And that goes for copyediting too. Unless you’re super sure you know all the grammar, don’t copyedit your own story.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.
Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.
WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It’s pretty awesome.
AND we have a writing tips podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW! It’s taking a bit of a hiatus, but there are a ton of tips over there.
We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream biweekly live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here.
Carrie is reading one of her raw poems every once in awhile on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!