Let’s continue our full-dress review of English preposition usage.
PREPOSITIONS OF MOTION AND DIRECTION
The prepositions “to,” “toward,” “in,” and “into.” These four prepositions link to their object destination these verbs of movement —“move,” “go,” “transfer,” “walk,” “run,” “swim,” “ride,” “drive,” “fly,” and “travel.” All except “transfer” can take both “to” and “toward.”
“To” conveys the idea of movement toward a specific destination, “toward” that of movement in a general direction that may not reach a specific destination: “Please take me
to the bus station.” (The speaker obligates the listener to take him to a specific place.)
“The speedboat headed
toward the harbor.” (The speaker indicates only a movement in a general direction.)
The prepositions “into” and “in” are generally interchangeable when used with verbs of motion, but with notable exceptions: use “in” (or “inside”) only when the preposition is the last word in the sentence or occurs right before an
adverbial of time (“today,” “tomorrow”),
adverbial of manner (“quickly,” “hurriedly”), or
adverbial of frequency (“once,” “twice”).
Examples: “The woman went
into the manager’s office.” “The woman
went in.” “The tenants moved
into the apartment yesterday” “The tenants moved
in hurriedly.” “The woman went
in twice.”
“Into” can also be used as the last word in a question: “What sort of trouble have you gotten yourself
into?” But “in” should be used if the question is in this form: “What sort of trouble are you
in?”
IMAGE CREDIT: YOUTUBE.COM“In/into” has two unique uses with the verb “move.” (1)
Use “move in” when what follows is a clause indicating purpose or motive: “The hunters
moved in for the kill.” “The soldiers
moved in for the attack.” In such cases, “in” is part of the verb phrase, so “into” cannot be used. (2)
Use “into” with “move” to convey the idea of a simple movement: “The firemen moved into the burning building.”
The prepositions of direction “to,” “onto,” and “into.” They correspond to the common locational prepositions: “to” for “at,” “onto” for “on,” and “into” for “in.” Each is defined by the same space relations of point, line, surface, or area as in the prepositions of location.
“To” signifies orientation toward a goal. If that goal is physical, “to” conveys the idea of movement in the direction of that goal: “The troops returned
to their base.”
“Toward” means about the same thing as “to.” If the goal is not physical but an action, “to” simply puts the verb in the infinitive form to express a purpose: “She sings
to earn extra money.” “She cut her hair
to show her displeasure.”
IMAGE CREDIT: BLOG.OFF2CLASS.COMAs we know, “onto” and “into” are compounds formed by “to” with corresponding prepositions of location: (1)
on + to = onto, to signify movement toward a surface, and (2)
in + to = into, to signify movement inside a finite three-dimensional space or volume.
Since “on” and “in” already have a directional meaning, so they can freely be used instead of “onto” and “into”: “The cats fell
on (onto) the floor.” “The whales washed up
onto (on) the beach.” “The girl jumped
into (in) the river.”
As a rule,
the compound locational prepositions “onto” and “into” convey consummation of an action: “The boy fell
onto [to] the ground.” “The sailor dived
into [to] the pool.”
The simple locational prepositions “on” and “in” indicate the subject’s end-position as a result of the action: “The boy is
on the ground.” “The sailor
is in the pool.”
The preposition “at” primarily works in two ways: (1)
As marker for a verb of motion directed towards a point: “She
arrived at the airport late.” “The marksman
aimed at the hostage-taker with precision.” (2)
As indicator of direction: “The man
leaped at the thief to subdue him.” “She
jumped at me without warning.”
(Next:
A full-dress review of English preposition usage - 3 (Time and Duration)) April 11, 2019
This essay, 1,138th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the April 4, 2019 print edition of The Manila Times
, © 2019 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.THE FORUM'S 5-PART PREPOSITION SERIES IN FULL:1. A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 1 (Place and Location) 2. A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 2 (Motion and Direction)THIS POSTING3. A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 3 (Time and Duration)4. Prepositions at work in literal prepositional phrases5. Prepositions at work in prepositional idioms
