Grammar Blocks

[KinsleyRoyale]

I checked the difference between using "into" and "in to" but am still questioning this. It's not my writing but someone's I saw.

"and try to tie it into a bigger trend"


My first hunch was to say "in to" because you can't put something into a trend. What do you think?

I also recently got a tip from a professional proofreader that said "backyard" is always one word. An editor on here sent back an article saying you might say "your backyard grill" and use one word but if you say, "add trees to your back yard" it would be 2 words. Who is correct?

[SJHillman]

The best thing to do is Google something like "into vs in to" when you're not sure of something.

Here's what I found:

Into - preposition describing movement towards the inside of a place
IE: He jumped into a lake. She got into a car. They went into the bank.

In To - An adverb followed by a preposition.
IE: He handed his paper in to the teacher. The chef turned the ingredients in to a cake.

You go into a police station to turn a lost wallet in to the police.

[Judith]

When used as a noun - My dog is in the back yard - it is two words,

When used as an adjective - I have a backyard pool - it is one word.

[KinsleyRoyale]

Judith that is what I learned here from the editors on CC about backyard/back yard. Funny in a proofreading professional's blog post the last tip she offered was that it was ALWAYS one word. And I've signed up to take a course from her. Oh my.

[KinsleyRoyale]

SJ Hillman, actually I had Googled it and got what you did. Do you think a "trend" is something you can put something into?

[Celeste Stewart]

I almost always see and use backyard as one word when referring to that outdoor space in the back of the house.
My trusty dictionary (Merriam-Webster 11th Edition / Collegiate) also uses backyard as one word for both the noun and adjective form. Here's the online definition from Merriam-Webster: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/backyard

I wonder if it's a UK vs. US usage thing?

[SJHillman]

I think "backyard" is the most prevalent, but there are some cases where I would use "back yard" - usually when using it to locate something relative to the house (or other dwelling). I may have a backyard barbecue, but I may run a hose from the front yard to the back yard.

To make things more confusing, my parents have a front back yard and a back back yard. The front back yard is immediately behind the house whereas the back back yard is further back than the front back yard and past a drainage ditch (affectionately called the Moat) and down a drop.

In short, if it's an adjective I would always use "backyard". If it's a noun, then I would probably use "back yard".

[jak]

In the UK we rarely use the term back yard, calling it our back garden instead. When I was child my mother referred to our back yard, meaning the concreted area next to the house where we children used to play. Beyond it was our back garden where my dad grew lots of vegetables. We don't use the word backyard at all.