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Which is correct:

"Dive right in to why you're involved"

or

"Dive right into why you're involved"

My guess is that the first is correct, since "in" is a part of "dive right in" and should be treated as a word separate from "to".

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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – tchrist
    Commented Jul 29, 2017 at 13:57

4 Answers 4

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I would say: "Dive right into why you're involved". I think the idiom can even be described as either "Dive right in" or "Dive right into (something)". So the "to" is actually a part of the idiom. Furthermore, if you remove the word "right" in your sentence, doesn't "Dive into why you're involved" sound more correct than "Dive in to why you're involved".

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  • Though I agree, I feel bound to remove the upvote I've given if you don't add supporting evidence (that 'dive into' can be used as a semi-transparent metaphor / 'phrasal verb'). Commented Jul 29, 2017 at 13:38
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I can see the point, but I would always use into here, as it is definitely correct usage and leaves no confusion in the mind of reader that it might be an error on the part of the writer.

I have no issues with dive right in in a sentence like Dive right in and get involved

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  • You can see the confusion that can ensue when opinions are presented without supporting evidence. Can you please add supporting evidence that 'dive into' is considered as valid a 'phrasal verb' as 'dive in', and a relevant example sentence or two? Commented Jul 29, 2017 at 13:55
  • You can see the confusion that can ensue when opinions are presented without supporting evidence. L. O. L. Edwin, I've provided enough evidence to last a lifetime.
    – user231780
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 4:33
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So let's dive into this question to answer it.

None of your options is correct. The right sentence would be:

"Dive right in, [as to] why you're involved"

Let's look at cambridge.org:

The phrasal verb is dive in/dive into something and not dive in to.

You could rephrase your sentence like this:

"Dive right into the question, why you're involved"

Here you use into as you have the something as target for your diving which is "the question". If you omit the something you should change from "into" to "to".

See the examples of to break in/break into something.

  1. The burglars disabled the alarm and used a glass cutter to break into the house.
  2. Thieves broke in and stole jewellery worth thousands of pounds.

The first sentence has the target "the house". In sentence two the target is omitted, so break in is used.

From the second sentence we can deduct a reason for the action and here we will finally find the break in to

  • Thieves break in to steal jewellery.
  • Thieves break into houses to steal jewellery.

For all the people that might say:

The verb is dive in so dive into must be wrong, and camebridge.org is wrong!

let us look at other dictionaries:

  • Merriam Webster "to start work on energetically"
  • Oxford "Occupy oneself suddenly and enthusiastically with [...]", "dive into a barbecued beef burrito"
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  • I know I need to include some more cases. I turn the assignment in to the teacher and I turn the assignment into the teacher are not covered by my argument so far :D
    – derM
    Commented Aug 2, 2017 at 12:53
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    The right sentence would be: "Dive right in, [as to] why you're involved." The fact that you separated the phrasal preposition as to from in proves even you think dive in is the verb. Also, the original structure of OP's sentence was perfectly correct.
    – user231780
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 21:30
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When you ever come across a situation involving into and in to, you have to look at the different verbs and phrasal verbs and examine their meanings.

  1. Dive - To plunge into something, usually water

  2. Dive in - To enthusiastically start doing something

I'm fairly sure you want to use the latter verb in this case. Because prepositions become adverbs within phrasal verbs, it is therefore wrong to mix the adverb in with the preposition to. In the end, you come out with the sentence Dive right in to why you're involved. The method I used comes from Grammar Girl. You can check her page on this out if you want further help.

Sources

  1. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/dive-in

  2. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/in-to-or-into?page=1

EDIT: It is correct to use dive into when something is plunging because then, the verb is dive.

He dove into the pool.

BUT

He dove in to his pizza because the verb is "dive in," meaning "to help oneself to food." (Google)

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  • What I consider rather strange is that your links support the existence of dive into as phrasal verb but that fact is completely ignored by your answer. Please extend your answer, so one can deduct when it is right to use into
    – derM
    Commented Aug 2, 2017 at 12:13
  • @derM Sure! I will edit my answer to explain when it is correct to use dive into.
    – user231780
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 19:28
  • dive in/dive into something is a phrasal verb. I am not sure whether Grammar Girl is more an authority than camebridge.org. Please compare "He had to break into the house because his girlfriend had locked him out." with We broke in to the room..
    – derM
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 22:04
  • Her second example "Squiggly walked in to hear Aardvark talking about the surprise party." is correct. You could also write: "Squiggly walked into Aardvarks place to hear Aardvark talking about the surprise party."
    – derM
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 22:06
  • My reasoning from the definition as dive in/dive into something in contrast to the definition as dive in is, that you can find a sentence with dive into [...] to [...] for every sentence dive in to [...].
    – derM
    Commented Aug 5, 2017 at 22:17

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