Turn to/turn into

Turn to/turn into
Message from jandark posted on 28-03-2013 at 11:20:41 (D | E | F)
Hello .

Could you help me please?
I have two examples for my problem .
1.If you had heated the ice it will turn /would have turned to water .
2.If you had heated the ice it will turn /would have turned into water .
In my knowledge the first example is incorrect or...
Thank you for your answers .

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Edited by lucile83 on 28-03-2013 11:39

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Re: Turn to/turn into from lucile83, posted on 28-03-2013 at 11:52:20 (D | E)
Hello,

2.If you had heated the ice it would have turned into water....this is the correct sentence.
I modified the test you were talking about.

You know that there are good dictionaries, this one for instance:
Link

turn (from something) into somethingto become something
Our dream holiday turned into a nightmare.
In one year she turned from a problem child into a model student.

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Re: Turn to/turn into from jandark, posted on 28-03-2013 at 12:42:40 (D | E)
Hello lucile83 ,thank you very much .The link is really good .

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Re: Turn to/turn into from notrepere, posted on 28-03-2013 at 16:18:56 (D | E)
Hello

Is it a trick question? Both sentences are the same except for turn to vs. turn into. If I had to choose between those two, I would pick "turn to". This may be a distinction in American English only, I don't know. You hear expressions such as "turn to dust" (instead of "turn into dust"). In American English, 'turn into' means to transform from one thing to another that it didn't start out to be. For instance, a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. But ice turns to water, since they are both water to begin with. And when you combine dust and water, you get mud, which is probably what I'm adding to this thread.

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Re: Turn to/turn into from gerondif, posted on 28-03-2013 at 16:24:21 (D | E)
Hello, np
I would say that water turns into ice below 0° centigrade because it turns from liquid state into solid state, but ice turns (back) to water because it was its original state.

Maybe "to" is just the short form of "into" used by a lazy grammar or if you just want to point to the result and not the actual physical transformation. However, turn into sounds to me more correct than turn to: He turned into a monster!!

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Re: Turn to/turn into from lucile83, posted on 28-03-2013 at 22:08:37 (D | E)
np and gerondif... both of you are going to drive jandark and others up the wall

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Re: Turn to/turn into from traviskidd, posted on 28-03-2013 at 23:05:47 (D | E)
Hello.

I think I more or less agree with notrepere; "turn into" is generally the correct phrase, but "turn to" can be (and usually is) used in certain expressions ("turn to dust/gold/stone") and when a transformation is quite natural and common, such as ice melting.

Once when I was driving, I got hungry and decided to turn into a restaurant. Did you know it's very difficult for restaurants to drive?

"An old man returns to Paris, as every old man must.
He finds the winter winds blow cold; his dreams have turned to dust." Link

See you.

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