An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'look into', with lots of examples in context
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Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them.
Today's post is all about 'to look into', which is a nice and easy phrasal verb as it only has a relatively small number of meanings. So, without further ado let's take a look at them....
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LOOK INTO: KEY INFORMATION
For more explanation of the terms in the table above, click here
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 2 |
Past tense forms | Looked into / looked into |
Separable? | No |
MEANINGS (Click to jump to each one)
THE BASICS
As a starting point for this post, let's take a look at the basics and consider individual component words 'look' and 'into'.
Firstly, we have the super common verb 'to look', which has a number of meanings in English, depending on which prepositional particle it is combined with. For this particular phrasal verb, we mean in the sense of directing our eyes in a direction in order to see something.
Why are you looking at me like that?
John looks around the room.
Secondly, we have the prepositional particle 'into', which I know from my experience with English learners is not the easiest preposition to understand. All you need to remember with 'into' is that is describes a movement to an end point which is inside something.
MEANING 1 : To look inside something
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CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To look at, to look, to peer into, to stare into |
Separable? | No |
The first of the two meanings of 'look into' is the literal meaning of the combination of the two words, which is simply 'to look inside something'.
To clarify, when we use 'to look into' literally, it means to look with our eyes towards the interior or inside of something. The speaker is normally (but not always) on the outside or exterior.
We can look into anything that has a physical inside space, such as a house, a hole or a box.
A robin was sitting on a tree and looking into my house.
The curious cat looked into the box as he knew a mouse was hiding inside it.
In addition to anything with an inside space, we can also use 'to look into' with all nouns with which we use 'in'. This includes anything that does not have a physical interior space, but with which we still use 'in', such as light, dark and the future.
When I looked into her eyes, I knew she was telling the truth.
Looking into the future, the outlook for treatment of the disease is very good.
EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #1
It is common to combine 'to look into' with an additional preposition such as down, up or back, in order to add extra spatial information to what you are saying.
The additional particle needs to go between look and into, e.g. 'to look up into' or 'to look down into'. Photo: Pexels
Examples in context....
The cat is looking down into the drain.
She looked up into the night sky and was amazed by the amount of stars that she could see.
The scientist was looking down into the volcano.
I stood on my doorstep and looked back into my house one more time.
EXTRA INFORMATION TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE #2
!!! Do not confuse 'look into' with 'look in' !!!
Due to their similarity and closeness in meaning it can be very easy to confuse these two phrasal verbs. In some situations this is not a problem because 'look in' can mean the same as 'look into' but 'look in' is used more commonly by native speakers to say that they are searching for something in a place or inside an interior space e.g. in a bag or a in a room.
Example in context....
LOOK IN: I can't find my keys! I've looked in my bag and in my room and they are definitely not there!
In the above example, it would be incorrect to say "I've looked into my bag and my room" because this would only mean that you looked with your eyes and but did not search inside the room for the keys.
MEANING 2: To investigate
Photo: Pexels
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper Intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potentia, synonyms | To investigate, to scrutinise, to explore |
Separable? | No |
So now we come to the most common meaning of 'to look into', which means to investigate or to examine information about a particular situation or problem, in order to establish what caused it or what needs to be done to resolve it.
This is very common in business English when a problem has occurred and is also something that you may hear the police or other authority figures say when dealing with a problem.
We promised the unhappy customer that we would look into the issue that they raised.
The school is looking into reports of bullying.
The team of top scientists has been looking into the effects of climate change on biodiversity in the region and will publish their findings next week.
In terms of formality, I would say that 'look into' is less formal than 'investigate', however 'look into' is frequently used in business English for things such as establishing what has caused a particular issue to arise. 'Investigate' tends to be used by the police when or in large scale formal investigations, however it is normally possibly to use these words interchangeably without causing any problems.
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SPEAK LIKE A NATIVE! TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW TO 'LOOK INTO' IS USED BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS
BUSINESS:
I don't have an answer right now. Can I look into it and come back to you?
The [noun] is being looked into.
The company is looking into the possibility of [verb + ing].......
I need you to urgently look into the matter and give me your feedback.
PERSONAL:
When I looked into his eyes, I knew he......
When I looked into the mirror*, I.....
When his mother looked into the room, she.....
The police are looking into the matter.
After looking into it, we decided.....
*With a mirror, it is also possible and common to say "look in a mirror".
Photo: Pexels
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on it and reading it. I hope that you found it useful and have been able to learn something new. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'look into'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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