Get into / get in

Question

which is correct?

He always looks at me when I get IN the room

or

He always looks at me when I get INTO the room

Answer 1

Typically "in" refers to stationary positions ("I am in the room," "I am in the pool") while "into" refers to active motion ("I am going into the room," "I am jumping into the pool").

In the case of "get in" vs. "get into" they are both colloquially acceptable (at least in the US), and you see sentences like "She got in the car," or "She got into the car" with similar frequency, even though into is probably more accurate at conveying the motion.

Pairing "get in" with "room" strikes me as unusual--unless there's a reason it would be difficult for someone to attain admission to the room, I would expect to see a phrase like "enter the room."

Answer 2

“To get in” means “to enter”- so the “to” is unnecessary. You would say “enter the room,” not “enter to the room,” so “get in the room” is the correct phrase. “To get into” something means to become very interested in, or, to start a deep discussion about or deep involvement in that thing. I don’t think you can use “get into” to refer to literally going to a place.

EDIT: thinking about it again, I may have been wrong above. I think “get into” could be used in place of “get in”, meaning the same thing, in which case both your sentences would be correct. Though I still think “get in” sounds better.

Answer 3

I would say that get into a car / room / space is correct, although 'get in (the house)' is commonly used when telling someone to enter a space. However, at the end of the phrase it's also correct, like: I was late so I didn't get in (to the school).

Furthermore, get in to do something is different as this is a phrasal verb followed by an infinitive with to. For example, I got in to see the match. In this case get into see the match would be completely wrong.