# Log into **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 14, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876 "2008-10-14T15:26:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/1 "2008-10-14T15:26:08Z")
So the writers in my department have different opinions on how to word something. I need some grammatical advice. “Log in” is sometimes combined as “login.” Fair enough. I prefer to keep it two separate words, but when it’s used as a noun I can deal with it. However, what about “log into”? Some of our team is writing “login to.” This seems wrong to me, but I can’t come up with any good justification because I am not much of a grammar maven. Thoughts, opinions, advice? Thanks very much! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/2 "2008-10-14T15:36:44Z")
I actually use statements like this at work. I would invariably use “log into” There’s also “Log in to” Which I _might_ have occasionally absent-mindedly used, but I don’t remember an instance. p.s. etymola-whatsits - what is the origin of using the word ‘Log’ in this context? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/3 "2008-10-14T15:40:14Z")
This all goes back to DEC v. VAX or some such days-of-yore computing dichotomy, IIRC. Some system prompted for a user id with _login:_ and some with _logon:_. On _login_ systems you exited by typing _logout_; on _logon_ systems you exited by typing _logoff_. Because all of them are one word, I would, being the kind of traditionalist that I am, use _login to_. EDIT: FWIW, [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Login) views them all as two words. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/4 "2008-10-14T15:42:20Z")
I have been told by the computer geeks at work that you use your login to log **on** to a computer. They say you can’t log in or log into a computer. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/5 "2008-10-14T15:44:03Z")
I don’t think ‘login’ exists as a verb, at all – it’d always have to be ‘to log in’ or ‘to log into’. The noun ‘login’ is usually taken to either describe the process of logging in, or as a synonym for screen name/nickname (‘My SDMB login is…’). ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/6 "2008-10-14T16:32:03Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > I don’t think ‘login’ exists as a verb, at all – it’d always have to be ‘to log in’ or ‘to log into’. The noun ‘login’ is usually taken to either describe the process of logging in, or as a synonym for screen name/nickname (‘My SDMB login is…’). I agree with this (and I’m enough of a geek to go up against whatever anybody else’s geeks say :)) “Login” and “logon” are used on computer systems because operating system commands never have spaces in them, not because they make particularly good sense in English. After all, people logged into and out of things before computers came along. Security officers log into and log out of their shifts. “My login is…” is shorthand for “My login ID is…”, just like we say “microwave” as shorthand for “microwave oven.” Whether you log \*into \*a computer or \*onto \*a computer gets down to some real hair-splitting. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/7 "2008-10-14T16:32:09Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > I have been told by the computer geeks at work that you use your login to log **on** to a computer. They say you can’t log in or log into a computer. This was my understanding. It’s your login name, but the action is to log on. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/8 "2008-10-14T16:51:48Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > I agree with this (and I’m enough of a geek to go up against whatever anybody else’s geeks say :)) > > “Login” and “logon” are used on computer systems because operating system commands never have spaces in them, not because they make particularly good sense in English. After all, people logged into and out of things before computers came along. Security officers log into and log out of their shifts. So, tell them to goto hell. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/9 "2008-10-14T17:26:46Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > “Login” and “logon” are used on computer systems because operating system commands never have spaces in them, not because they make particularly good sense in English. After all, people logged into and out of things before computers came along. Security officers log into and log out of their shifts. Aha! That makes sense. Hmmm… as a writing geek (vs. a computer geek), I think I have to go with “log into”! Hooray for geekiness! ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/10 "2008-10-14T18:19:38Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Whether you log \*into \*a computer or \*onto \*a computer gets down to some real hair-splitting. But does that then mean you log _outof_ or log _offof_ your computer? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/11 "2008-10-14T18:21:03Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Whether you log \*into \*a computer or \*onto \*a computer gets down to some real hair-splitting. But once you’re in you switch to hair-pulling. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/12 "2008-10-14T18:23:18Z")
p.s. You are neither in it, nor on it. ‘You’ and ‘it’ are not connected. the questin is, is IT logged out, or is IT logged in. I once had a computer teacher who had a bee in her bonet about calling them computers. She thought it implied that they were brains that could ‘compute’ She insisted on calling them ‘Machines’ ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/13 "2008-10-14T18:37:30Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > p.s. You are neither in it, nor on it. > ‘You’ and ‘it’ are not connected. the questin is, is IT logged out, or is IT logged in. Your literal facts are correct, but you’re wrong as to what this term means. See post 6.\* Your name is in/on the log of people using the computer. That’s exactly the derivation of this usage. It doesn’t come from microcomputers, it comes from networked minis and mainframes. - This part: > [@](#): > > After all, people logged into and out of things before computers came along. Security officers log into and log out of their shifts. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/14 "2008-10-14T19:00:03Z")
Yeah either log in or log on work fine. Thinking about it in the original terms of a log like a Sailing ships Captain’s Log. it it sounds acceptable to put something’ in the log’ or ‘on the log’, just like ‘in the record’, or ‘on the record’ both work. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/15 "2008-10-14T19:27:02Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I once had a computer teacher who had a bee in her bonet about calling them computers. She thought it implied that they were brains that could ‘compute’ She insisted on calling them ‘Machines’ I could understand this if it were 1948. The term “computer” first meant a person who did computations. When machines were invented to do this, they were called “electronic computers” or “computing machines.” But today the original usage has been lost, and her position would be merely quaint, and is downright eccentric for a computer teacher. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/16 "2008-10-14T20:09:11Z")
Logon please: Joeuser ?log-f syntax error logon please: ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/17 "2008-10-14T20:26:37Z")
The [GPO Style Manual](http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/2000/chapter_txt-7.html) – probably the best guide for this sort of question – has “login,” “logon,” and “logoff.” There is no listing for “log out,” which means it’s not one word. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/log-into/467876/18 "2008-10-14T22:38:28Z")
Definitely a pet peeve of mine. The verb is two words, while the adjective and noun are one. See also: backup.