Look into

To “look into” means to informally research something or investigate something.

Today's story: World's largest plant
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Look into

Today’s English expression is a phrasal verb, and that is “look into.” This is an informal way of saying to research something or to investigate something. I say “informal” because you don’t use this in very serious situations or when there is a lot of urgency. When you “look into” something, you’re doing it at a comfortable pace.

In my house, I have six double-pane windows that have moisture trapped between the panes. So the windows look foggy all the time. This happens when the seal on the windows breaks, the gas between the two panes leaks out, and moisture gets in. So I have to either repair those windows or replace the glass.

Right now I’m looking into how much it will cost to make that repair. That means I’m researching it, but it’s not like this is my top priority. I made a few calls. One company called me back and gave me an estimate. Nobody else called back yet. Maybe I’ll pick up the phone again on Monday and follow up. I’m not in a huge hurry, but I am working on it. So I’m looking into the cost to replace the windows—perfect example, I’m researching it, but it’s not like it’s super urgent or important.

Earlier today, I was describing the scientific research project in Shark Bay. I said that scientists were looking into the genetic diversity of a meadow of seagrass off the cost of western Australia . They were researching the genetic diversity of the seagrasses. Now they are professionals; I’m not taking anything away from them. But they didn’t realize that they were on the verge of a major scientific discovery. They were going about their work at a normal pace when—wow!—they discovered that they were actually looking at the biggest plant in the world.

When we use “look into,” it can be for something really important or not important at all. But they key is, you do it at a comfortable pace. For example, if you’re a prison warden and someone calls to say that a violent criminal has just escaped, you don’t say, “Ah okay, thanks I’ll look into it.” No, because remember, “look into” is to do something at a comfortable pace. With a violent criminal on the loose, you’ll want to investigate that with quite a bit of urgency.

This is a common phrase to use in the workplace; I use it all the time. Someone might send me a message and say, “I think there’s something strange in this Excel model, but I don’t know what it is.” And I might respond, “Okay, I’ll look into it and let you know what I find.” That means, I’ll investigate. I’m not going to drop everything, but I will investigate the problem. I’ll look into it.

You can say, “We’re looking into a new videoconferencing system.” That means, “we’re researching a new videoconferencing system.” You could say, “We should look into hiring someone else to help us with all this work.” That means, you should think about or research what it takes to hire someone else.

JR’s song of the week

It’s time for JR’s song of the week. This week he picked “Night Changes” by the band One Direction. It’s all about how quickly life changes. One of the lines is, “Does it ever drive you crazy just how fast the night changes?” This was certainly not the biggest commercial hit from One Direction, an English-Irish pop band, but it did get good reviews. It’s a good sound, too. “Night Changes” by One Direction is the song JR chose for us this week.

See you next time!

I just realized we had two expressions in a row with “look.” On Monday we did “look down on.” And that reminds me of a great feature on PlainEnglish.com. On the transcripts, toward the top of the page, there’s a list of keywords. JR picks the keywords. So for example, today he picked “look” and “into” as the keywords. This is not the hardest part of his job!

However, the keywords are like an index to the site. So if you click on the word “look” at the top of the transcript, you’ll find all the other expressions we’ve talked about with the word “look.” So you’ll see “look forward to” and “look on” and “look someone in the eye.” If you click “into” then you’ll get two pages of expressions to explore.

So that’s just another way to explore the site; you do have to be a member of PlainEnglish.com, but this is open to the free members. We’ve done almost 500 expressions, so this is a great way to explore those older ones that maybe you didn’t hear the first time around. Just saying.

That’s all for today’s Plain English. You can get the full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/479, and remember we’ll be back on Monday with a brand new lesson. See you then.

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Story: World's largest plant