Lioness Press presents Grammar Rules

The into-onto writer conundrum.

Into and onto are prepositions that many of us stress over in our writing. It’s a writerly conundrum that even the savviest editor struggles with from time to time. Yet, grammar has rules and editors have tricks and tests to help them learn those rules. Thus, Lioness Press presents Grammar Rules to help you learn them too.

You attempt to describe an action but can’t remember if one goes in to the breach or into the breach. Does one walk on to the trail or onto the trail?

These questions and others are one of the reasons why I started this blog, so read on as this post explains the relevant roles of these operative words and phrases.

The into or in to, onto or on to conundrum.

Into and onto are prepositional words that describe relative position, which means they come before the object.

They become part of prepositional phrases, like “My tutors drilled religion into my head” or “He pressed the papal seal onto the letter’s wax.” These words look forward, so, as their grammatical name implies, they come before the object (head or wax).

A prepositional phrase is a phrase that includes a preposition, a word that, as its pre-name implies, comes before the object of a sentence. (Think: place before object.)

And because these prepositional phrases provide more information about an action that occurred (as in the sentences “She walked into the museum” and “The man climbed onto the roof”), they serve as adverbs.

Adverbs are words that usually modify — that is, they limit or restrict the meaning of — verbs. They may also modify adjectives, other adverbs, phrases, or even entire sentences. An adverb answers the question when?, where?, how?, how much?, how long?, or how often? — Merriam-Webster 

We know adverbs as single words that usually end in -ly (“She walked aimlessly” or “The man climbed quickly”), but adverbs can also consist of two or more words that appear without any additional information or combined with one-word adverbs, either adjacent to each other or separated by subject and verb (as in “She walked aimlessly into the library” or “Quickly, the man climbed onto the roof”).

In to and on to both contain two distinct parts of speech: an adverb followed by a preposition. In and on follow a verb to provide more information while to precedes the object that follows the verb and its adverb (“She walked in to browse the library” and “The man climbed on to get a better look”).

In to and 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, distinguishing into from in to is more straightforward. If you wish to write that you went someplace to let a representative of a business know you were disappointed with a product/service, you can express that idea using either form. But if you write, “I walked into the office to lodge a complaint,” the sentence focuses on the prepositional phrase “into the office.” If you write, “I walked in to lodge a complaint,” the emphasis is the phrase describing the action: “I walked in.”

The problem comes because both sentences are correct and they seem similar, yet they denote different things. So, think: Where do I want the emphasis to go?

Bill Bryson says it best: “…onto is used where the two elements function as a compound preposition (‘He jumped onto the horse’) and on to is used where on is an adverb (‘We moved on to the next subject’).”

FROM BRYSON’S DICTIONARY OF TROUBLESOME WORDS. THIS IS A WONDERFUL COMPILATION OF SUGGESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS EVERY WRITER SHOULD KNOW IN THEIR QUEST FOR ENGLISH. BUY YOUR COPY HERE.

Onto and on to can be more confusing but think of the problem this way: “He drove onto the freeway” means, “He drove so that he was on the highway.” Conversely, “He drove on to the freeway” means, “He headed for the freeway.” The two-word form is also appropriate for figurative (abstract) meanings, where no placement or physical movement occurs—for example, “You’re really on to something” or “I passed the information on to all the ladies in my writing group.”

Fortunately, you can test whether onto or on to is correct by, temporarily, inserting the word up after the verb, or replace the word (or phrase) with the word on:

Insert “Up”: When you wish to write that you used a ladder, could you write, “I climbed up onto the roof”? Yes, you could, so onto is correct. When you want to express that you clutched something, could you write, “I held up on my cap”? No, the sentence does not make sense, so the two-word form (“I held on to my cap”) is the right one in this case.

Replace “On”: When you wish to write that you scaled a boulder, could you write, “I climbed on a boulder”? Yes, you could, so onto is correct. When you want to express that you gave something, would you write, “I passed it on him”? No, that doesn’t make sense, so the two-word form (“I passed it on to him”) is correct.

This are simple tests but know that I also have issues with on and up words, which shall be the topic of a future blog.

Thanks for stopping by Grammar Rules, where we hope to post a weekly blog to help you grow as an accomplished writer. And if you enjoyed this blog and know of others who might enjoy gaining more writing knowledge, please share.