How to Choose Between Into or Onto and Their Two-Word Forms

How to Choose Between Into or Onto and Their Two-Word Forms How to Choose Between â€Å"Into† or â€Å"Onto† and Their Two-Word Forms How to Choose Between â€Å"Into† or â€Å"Onto† and Their Two-Word Forms By Mark Nichol Into, or â€Å"in to†? Onto, or â€Å"on to†? Into and onto are prepositions, words that describe relative position. They are part of prepositional phrases, such as â€Å"She settled herself into her seat† or â€Å"He climbed onto the roof.† These words are forward looking, in that, as their grammatical name implies, they are positioned before the object. â€Å"In to† and â€Å"on to,† on the other hand, are combinations of an adverb (in or on) and the preposition to. Unlike the single-word forms, they look both backward (in and on refer to a preceding verb) and forward (to pertains to the following object). Of the distinctions between each pair, that distinguishing into from â€Å"in to† is more straightforward. If you wish to write that you went somewhere to let a representative of a company know you are disappointed with a product or service, you can express that idea using either form. But if you write, â€Å"I walked into the office to lodge a complaint,† the sentence focuses on the prepositional phrase â€Å"into the office.† If you write, â€Å"I walked in to lodge a complaint,† the emphasis is the phrase describing the action: â€Å"I walked in.† Onto and â€Å"on to† can be more confusing, but think of the problem this way: â€Å"She drove onto the highway† means, â€Å"She drove so that she was on the highway.† Conversely, â€Å"She drove on to the highway† means, â€Å"She headed for the highway.† The two-word form is also appropriate for figurative meanings, where no physical movement or placement exists for example, â€Å"I think you’re really on to something.† Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to test whether onto or â€Å"on to† is correct temporarily insert the word up after the verb, or, just for the test, replace the word or the phrase with the word on: The â€Å"Up† Test When you wish to write that you used a ladder, could you write, â€Å"I climbed up onto the ladder†? Yes, you could, so onto is correct. When you want to express that you clutched something, could you write, â€Å"I held up on my hat†? No, the sentence does not make sense, so the two-word form (â€Å"I held on to my hat†) is the right one in this case. The â€Å"On† Test When you wish to write that you scaled a boulder, could you write, â€Å"I climbed on a boulder†? Yes, you could, so onto is correct. When you want to express that you bequeathed something, would you write, â€Å"I passed it on him†? No, that doesn’t make sense, so the two-word form (â€Å"I passed it on to him†) is correct here. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comma After i.e. and e.g.25 Russian Words Used in English (and 25 More That Should Be)Each vs. Both

Meaning Of French Expression Avoir LEsprit DEscalier

Meaning Of French Expression Avoir LEsprit DEscalier â€Å"Avoir l’esprit d’escalier† - or sometimes â€Å"avoir l’esprit de l’escalier† is yet another weird French idiom. Literally, it means to have the wit of the staircase. So it means nothing really!   Synonyms of Avoir lEsprit dEscalier in French and English In English, you sometimes call this â€Å"escalator wit†, or afterwit. It means to make a witty comeback, to answer someone in a witty (and fast) way. Its something the French really admire and are trained to do as part of our national sport: arguing and debating. To say to make a witty comeback, we use the expression â€Å"avoir de la rà ©partie†. So here, we could say â€Å"manquer de rà ©partie†, â€Å"ne pas savoir rà ©pliquer sur le moment†, â€Å"perdre ses moyens†. Example of Escalator Wit in French and English Moi, je manque cruellement de rà ©partie. Quand je me sens attaquà ©e, je perds tous mes moyens, je bredouille... et puis quand je suis rentrà ©e chez moi, je trouve plein de rà ©pliques fantastiques. Jai vraiment lesprit descalier. I desperately lack the ability to make witty comebacks. When I feel threatened, I lose my cool, I stutter... and once Im back home, I find lots of great comebacks. I really have an escalator wit. Origin of the French Idiom â€Å"Avoir l’Esprit d’Escalier† The philosopher Diderot wrote around 1775: â€Å" « ...lhomme sensible comme moi, tout entier ce quon lui objecte, perd la tà ªte et ne se retrouve quau bas de lescalier  ». Which translates  to: â€Å"The sensitive man such as myself, entirely absorbed by things that are being objected to him, loses his mind and recovers it only at the bottom of the stairs†. He meant that if someone opposed him in a conversation, he was so upset by it that he couldn’t concentrate anymore, and that it’s only once he had left, and reached the bottom of the staircase (therefore too late), that he could come up with a good answer.   French stairs Speaking of lescalier, remember French people do not count their stairs the way Americans do.