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Category Archives: phrasal verbs

Log and In: A Love Story (Part II)

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Karen C Standard 1

When should you write “log in” as two words, and when should you write it as “login”? Here’s a story to help you easily remember. In Part I, we focused on the two-word (verb) formation. In Part II, we focus on the one-word (noun/adjective) formation.

Log and In, a verb and preposition happily united as the phrasal verb couple Log In, had been contemplating growing their family into a more meaningful unit (see Part I). Nine months later, Log and In (also known as non-hyphenated Mr. and Mrs. Log In) gave birth to a squealing, happy, healthy baby girl. Since the baby was a true one-piece product of their love (and yes, they were a bit narcissistic), they decided to name her Login. “It’s a noun!” Log proclaimed, tossing cigars to his friends. They celebrated this beautiful and nominal, yet ever-so-substantial new existence, exclaiming, “Here’s the login!” and (perhaps creepily,) “Access your login here!” Yes, Login was the thing Log and In had been yearning for. This thing completed them.

But it was In who quickly realized that their precious Login had a very special talent: she could also easily act as an adjective, describing other nouns! As she got older, Login was quick to come to the aid of her other noun friends, forming friendships based on login help, login information, and login page. It was no surprise that at high school graduation, her friends voted her both “most likely to succeed” and “most confusing,” since she had such versatile abilities yet was so often misunderstood.

Login went on to have a very fulfilling life, both being a thing and describing things. She formed a special love/hate relationship with Logout, whose parents, Log and Out, were good friends of Log and In… But that’s a story for another time.

♥ ♥ The End ♥ ♥

The Nitty-Gritty

Verb + preposition combinations such as “log in” are called two-word verbs (ingenious, eh?), or phrasal verbs. In a phrasal verb, the verb and preposition act as a married couple — they must both be present to retain their meaning. (In Part I, you can see that “log” alone has a different meaning than “log in.”)

Whenever you want to use a verb + preposition combination (phrasal verb) to express action, keep the words separate and don’t hyphenate — though they are like a married couple, we still need to recognize their individual identities.

Verb examples: Log in. Log in now. Log in here.

Sometimes we can squish the verb and preposition together to make a new word. In the story above, Log and In squished together to create their offspring, the lovely Login. This single, squished-together word acts as either a noun or (more commonly) an adjective.

Noun examples: Login (as a label). Here is the login. My login is not working.

Adjective examples: The login screen is ugly. How many login usernames and passwords do you have? A hacker stole my login information.

Note: Many times, the button that reads “login” is not technically incorrect, but I would argue that most of the time, “log in” is a better choice, as the goal is a call to action, as opposed to simply stating what it is. Wouldn’t you rather be saying to people, “Hey, log in here, now” and not just, “Hey, here’s the login”?

Now that you know when to use “log in” versus “login,” do you see all the websites that get this wrong? (I estimate that about half of all websites get it wrong, at least half of the time!)

Log and In: A Love Story (Part I)

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Karen C Standard 9

When should you write “log in” as two words, and when should you write it as “login”? Here’s a story to help you easily remember. In Part I, we focus on the two-word formation. Part II, one-word formations, will be covered next week.

Once upon a time, there lived a lonely, sad man named Log. Log was a member of a highly respected verb family, and like most verbs, Log was a man of action. He spent his days logging trees for timber, his labor reflected in his sinewy arms and chest. It was an incredibly physically demanding job, and his friends marveled at how Log spent his vacations: Being a restless traveler with insatiable curiosity, he hated relaxing on beaches. Instead, he would ride his stallion from village to village, logging hundreds of miles and taking in as many sights as he could. And at the end of each day, he still had the energy to update his journal and log everything he did and everyone he met.

But alas, something was missing from Log’s life. He felt incomplete. His heart felt empty and he couldn’t find the words to express all the actions he imagined. There was something more he needed…

Meanwhile, in a distant village, there lived a lonely, sad woman named In. In was a member of a highly respected family of prepositions. And like most prepositions, In was confident with the position she held in society and never felt a lack of direction in her life. She was very popular, part of the “in” crowd, always in style, and felt very lucky to not feel isolated or rejected like her cousin, Out, sometimes did.

Yet, something was missing from In’s life. She felt incomplete. She needed to bond with someone, to find greater meaning and energy than existed in her current simple life…

And so it was destiny that on one of Log’s journeys to a distant village, he stopped at a local pub and set his eyes on the beautiful young shimmery-haired lass named In. It was love at first sight.

Log’s sense of action and In’s strong direction proved to be ultimately compatible, as verb-preposition relationships are wont to be. They got married after only three dates and formed a deeper bond that cemented their pairing with greater, more precise meaning. Together, as Log In, they were not just a power couple, but a power verb couple. With more action-packed meaning than before, they could now log in to access time machines and technology in the ether-world, a thousand years into the future. Together, they could log in to Google and WordPress and even Dictionary.com. They logged in to Eater and Hulu and their online bank accounts. They thought they had it made.

But Log In soon realized that something was still missing from their new life. As Log and In, they had some meaning in their individual lives, but it was made much more dynamic when they united as Log In. Could it be that it was time to grow their little family? If they could achieve more as Log In, wouldn’t they be even more powerful with an extension of themselves? Yes, they definitely needed something to complement their actions…

To be continued…

The Nitty-Gritty

Verb + preposition combinations such as “log in” are called two-word verbs (ingenious, eh?), or phrasal verbs. In a phrasal verb, the verb and preposition act as a married couple — they must both be present to retain their meaning. (You can see that “log” alone has a different meaning than “log in.”) Whenever you want to use a verb + preposition combination (phrasal verb) to express action, keep the words separate and don’t hyphenate — though they are like a married couple, we still need to recognize their individual identities. And as with any single-word verb, the verb part of a phrasal verb can change tense.

Examples: Log in. Log in here. Log in now. She logged in yesterday. The hacker wants to log in to your account. I will log in for more information.

Now, look around… can you find any “log in” buttons that are mistakenly labeled “login”?

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