Enter into

From The Jolly Contrarian
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Towards more picturesque speech

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In which one does not need the preposition “into” seeing as, by definition, entering something — even a legal contract — is “going into it”. Yet even stylists as fine as the draftsperson of A Manual of Style For the Drafting of Contractual Instruments — whose very title betrays its author as the sort of fellow whose idea of “style” is a waistcoat and pantaloons — find the thought of omitting that preposition oddly “unnatural”.[1]

Nonetheless, the resourceful draftsperson will insist on entering into legal agreements (and might correct your draft if you neglect to do so). Indeed, one with a higher dan might even chain his or her prepositions together, tether them to a passive and speak reverently of a transaction “entered into under this agreement”.

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