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A line from the novel The Fault in Our Stars.

Do you want me to carry it in for you?

Is it sufficient to say carry it for you instead of carry it in for you? What is the difference?

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  • I am offering to carry it in from maybe car to inside the home, so 'carry it in' rather than carry it to nowhere special.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Jul 17, 2017 at 3:10
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    Carry it in is short for carry it into the house/building. It's not more correct nor less correct, but rather expresses a different offer--to bring the thing into the building, rather than to carry it to some unspecified destination. Carry it in may imply greater autonomy, where carry it usually implies that both parties will stay together, in my experience.
    – Mathieu K.
    Commented Jul 17, 2017 at 3:52
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    Please vote to migrate such questions to ELL. @YosefBaskin and please make those real answers, because they are answers.
    – NVZ
    Commented Jul 17, 2017 at 6:43

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Mathieu K answered in a comment:

Carry it in is short for carry it into the house/building. It's not more correct nor less correct, but rather expresses a different offer--to bring the thing into the building, rather than to carry it to some unspecified destination.

Carry it in may imply greater autonomy, where carry it usually implies that both parties will stay together, in my experience.

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  • This was a community wiki answer I'd posted on ELU, but changed to normal answer here after migration. I'm not sure why.
    – NVZ
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 6:24
  • Would you like it converted back into a wiki? You can just flag these for the mod team and we'll take care of it.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Jul 19, 2017 at 15:15
  • @ColleenV Thanks, but not at the moment. There is a (possible) bug report I've raised in meta ELU. Let this stay as is. I can convert it into CW any time by editing it.
    – NVZ
    Commented Jul 19, 2017 at 15:17

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