Into vs In To | Difference Between into and in to

The words “into” and “in to” sound just the same. But do they also mean the same? In this tutorial, we will discuss the differences between the terms “into” and “in to” in detail.

Into vs In To

How the word “into” is different from “in to”? 

The words into and in to are homophones, meaning, words with the same sound but different meanings. That is the reason why they are easily confused. However, they also differ in the way they can be used in sentences.  

But worry now, in this article, you will learn how these words are different from each other and how and where you should use each of them. Thus, without further ado, let us look at these words in detail.

Difference between “Into” and “In to”

Into	In to
Into is a single individual word.	In To is not a word, but a phrase consisting of two words.
Into is a preposition.	In To consists of two prepositions – in and to.
Into is used to refer to movement or motion that results in some kind of forceful or unforceful contact.	It is used to refer to show enclosure while to is used to show motion. These words often fall one after the other in some sentences.
Into is synonymous with terms like towards, within, interested in, etc.	The phrase ‘In to’ has no such synonym.
It can be used in a sentence as – “She went into the haunted castle without informing anyone.”	This phrase can be used in a sentence as – “I dropped in to meet his mom.”

Meaning of “Into”

The word into is a preposition that means, movement or motion in a sense that results in contact or collision. It is also synonymous with the terms like ‘interested in’, ‘towards’, ‘within’, etc. 

Examples of Into in sentences

Into can be used at various places as follows-

• She walked into the castle and summoned other witches. 
• Pour the milk into the oat bowl. 
• This river flows into the Indian Ocean. 

You can see that the word answers the question ‘Where?’ As an example, take the first sentence and ask, ‘Where did she walk?’

The answer definitely is, ‘into the castle’.

 Where to use it?

You can use the word into in the following respects-

• To refer to the inside of something as in – I can’t get into shoes anymore. 
• To refer to transformation from one form to another as in – Dice the onion into small squares. 
• To refer to direction as in – The ball bounced up into the air. 
• To refer to movement that results in some kind of collision as in – The cat crashed into the bush. 
• To refer to involvement as in – The Police is looking into the murder case. 
• To refer to interest as in – I am into pop music. 

Meaning of “In To” 

First and foremost, ‘in to’ is not a single word; both ‘in’ and ‘to’ are prepositions that sometimes happen to fall together in some sentences. And in such places, people usually merge the two together. 

The preposition ‘in’ is used to refer to-

• something that is enclosed by something or someone
• a point in time where an event occurs or occurred 

The preposition ‘to’ is used to refer to-

• motion or direction
• something or someone affected by something

Note that both these words can be used as adverbs as well. Moreover, ‘it’ can also be used as an adjective. 

Let us look at how the words ‘in to’ are used in various places. 

Examples and usage of the words In To

Usually, when the word ‘in’ follows phrasal verbs, combining ‘to’ with ‘in’ is completely wrong as in-

• I popped in to greet her. 

Here, ‘her’ is not a place that you can go inside. Thus, it should be written as-

• I popped in to greet her. 

Some phrasal verbs like turn in, fill in, and take in are used as prepositions. But combining them with to is wrong as in-

• The sleeves of the dress turn into give an alternate design option. 

Thus, it should be written as-

• The sleeves of the dress turn into give an alternate design option. 

How to decide whether to use In or Into?

Using into and in to is not that hard until a situation like that of a phrasal verb appears. Whenever confused, read the words out aloud and pause between in and to. Check if the words following the word into or in to is something that someone or something can go inside. If yes, use into, else check if in to would suit better. 

Mostly, reading the sentence with careful pauses helps make sense of the mistakes.