sophinisba | (no subject)

I had to look that up, too!

“Onto” and “on to” are often interchangeable, but not always. Consider the effect created by wrongly using “onto” in the following sentence when “on to” is meant: “We’re having hors d’oeuvres in the garden, and for dinner moving onto the house.” If the “on” is part of an expression like “moving on” it can’t be shoved together with a “to” that just happens to follow it.

From here:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/onto.html

I have looked it up a few times too and never come across an example that deals specifically with the expression "hold on". I've started using a space in the last year or two but I always feel uncertain about it! Maybe it's one of those situations where they are interchangeable, so all my angst has been for naught!

My native speaker instincts tell me the first one is weird and the second one sounds better.

/linguist

I like the second one better too but I wish I understood the distinction better. I also have trouble with in to/into.

Bill Bryson, in his erudite book "Troublesome Words" says that both are correct in America, whilst Britain tends to cling to the separate words exceot in the case "he fell onto the floor" type usage, (compound preposition) but separated when using "we moved on to the next subject," (as an adverb)

I understand what he means. So I spose it would be "he held on to him" - but in either case you would not be wrong in the US if you used onto. :D xxx

Oh, thank you, that is really helpful. I used to write it as one word but noticed while reading the Harry Potter books that she almost always used two, and I started doing that too but felt unsure about it. I hadn't considered that the British usage might be different, but of course that makes sense.

My gut instinct says that the second one is correct, but I just read Issy's statement that both are correct in the US. Just like us to glom onto anything that almost sounds right and make it acceptable. :/

Ah, well, Issy's answer makes me happy in that it explains the different usage I've seen in different places since I started worrying about this a couple years ago. I feel so free now. :)

I like either. *grin* Seriously (and so I'm not just gratuitously commenting to use this icon) I think both sound right but the second seems to fit the context better. I'm not entirely sure why.

I do not have a Frodo/Merry icon, isn't that silly?

I'm happy to think of it as a British/American thing because I'm inconsistent about that stuff all the time and have chosen not to let it bother me. :)

Neither.

Merry clutched Frodo close, so close that he smelled Frodo's skin.

Ah, that is much better.

Found this site just yesterday. Don't know if it is any good but it looked useful. Let me know if it helps...and so long as Frodo is in Merry's arms, I really don't care how he got there.

http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/

Ah, thank you. That site doesn't mention this issue in particular, but it's a good link to have.

I believe Baranduin's interpretation is the correct one.... :)

I think on to is correct, though Valar help me if you ask me to expalin why. :-)

I don't believe I've ever used "onto," though I've used "into." I didn't know "onto" was a word! *ashamed*

"Onto" appears to mean "on top of", and since you can always just say "on top of", you've never had a need to say onto! It's all good! And Frodo loves Big Men too!

Hee! Frodo is onto Big Men, then!!!

Per the Chicago Manual of Style "one trick is to mentally say 'up' before on: if the sentence still makes sense, then onto is probably the right choice." So, I suspect "on to" is better. But actually, I think "Frodo snogged Merry" is better usage. *grin*

Thank you, I wasn't aware of that distinction and it helps a lot. Abundantlyqueer actually commented on my IJ with a similar one and the following examples: "Merry held on to Frodo. Merry climbed onto Frodo." Mrawr.