Learn English – I’m wondering about the difference between “change into” and “change to”

differenceprepositions

Could I get an answer to the question in the title?
I can't figure out how to use it.

  1. I changed my hair from dark brown to blonde.
  2. The play changed the shy girl into a very outgoing girl.

Best Answer

If X changes into Y or something/somebody changes X into Y, X and Y are the same entity, but its nature is transformed. But if you change something from A to B or something changes from A to B, A and B are two separate entities or qualities, and A is discarded and replaced with B.

So, in your example,

(a) The play changed the shy girl into a very outgoing girl.

we will recognize the shy girl and the outgoing girl as the same person, but her nature changed. But we could say:

(b) The play made the girl change from being shy to being outgoing.

Here shyness and outgoingness are not the same quality: the former was discarded and replaced with the latter.

Similarly we could say:

(c) He changed from being a nice lad to being rude and unhelpful. (Longman Dictionary)

(d) The nice lad changed into a rude and unhelpful brat.

In (d) the lad and the brat are the same person but his nature changed. In (c) niceness and rudeness are not the same quality, and rudeness replaced niceness.

And two more examples from Oxford Learner’s Dictionary: in (e) the caterpillar and the butterfly are the same entity, and so are the prince and the frog in (f):

(e) Caterpillars change into butterflies.

(f) With a wave of her magic wand, she changed the frog into a handsome prince.

In your other example

(g) I changed my hair from dark brown to blonde.

brownness and blondness are different qualities, and again one replaces the other. But if you had a magic wand you could change your dark brown hair into blonde hair.