Learn English – Difference between “Go into” and “Go inside”

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I would like to know the difference in meaning between "go into" and "go inside".

Here are a couple of sentences.

  1. The boys went into the room.
  2. The boys went inside the room.

I know in the first sentence "went into" means "entered" and it's being used the preposition of movement "into". But what about the second sentence?

Is it correct?

What is it expressing?

What's the difference in meaning between these two sentences?

Best Answer

"Inside" places more emphasis on the fact that the boys are now inside of something, and also places more direct emphasis on the room as a physical place, as oppose to it being considered more conceptually.

It naturally includes awareness of its opposite, "outside". It would therefore be a bit odd to use "went inside the room" if they had only come from another room. However, if the new room had some quality that the other room lacked, let's say it was much warmer or colder, or something like that, using "inside" would place some emphasis on that.

I feel that "inside" naturally suggests some kind of change, something different from "outside".

We could perhaps also say that "into" provides a contrast to its opposite, "out of", and therefore places more emphasis on the actual entering of the room.

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