The Phrasal Verb 'Move In' Explained
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- 9 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'move in' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
This article is all about the English phrasal verb 'move in', which is one that is used regularly by speakers to talk about different things including new homes, attacks and police operations. In this post, I will explain the three different meanings that it has in English and for each one, I will provide you with lots of example sentences to show when and where you should use them. So, let's get started and see what the phrasal verb 'move in' is all about....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
MOVE IN: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 3 |
Past tense forms | Moved in / moved in |
Separable? | Sometimes |
The phrasal verb 'move in' is formed of the individual words 'move' and 'in' and so to begin our exploration of it, let's first consider what these two little words mean on their own.
Move - To move is a common and regular English verb whose main meaning is to change position or to cause something to change position. In addition to this, 'to move' can also signify progress or travel in a specific direction and in these cases it is often combined with a prepositional particle, forming a phrasal verb, to indicate the direction. One key meaning of the verb 'to move' in English is to go to a different house, city or country to start living there.
When I woke up this morning I could not move my arm.
We need to move this traffic cone as it is blocking the road.
The hairdresser asked the child to stop moving so she could cut his hair properly.
Hopefully, the talks this week will move the project forward.
My parents have retired and have decided to move to France.
In - The word 'in' is one that you should know extremely well as it is one of the most common words in the English language and is used primarily to signify being inside or moving towards the inside of something. When used in phrasal verbs, 'in' can add different meanings to the main verb such as entry (let in), participation (join in), completion (fill in) and restriction (shut in).
So, now that we have looked at the basics, let's get started with the meanings of the phrasal verb 'move in'....
MEANING 1: To begin living in a new home
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To inhabit, to settle, to take up residence |
Separable? | Sometimes |
We will start our analysis of the meanings of the phrasal verb 'move in' with the most common one, which is 'to begin living in a new home'.
This usage is really a literal usage of the combination of the two words 'move' and 'in' when we take the idea of living in a new house that we get from the verb 'to move' and combine it with the idea from 'in' of a movement towards an interior space.
As I'm sure you can imagine, we use this application to talk about when a person physically enters their new home with all of their possessions and starts living there. Note that it is not used for when people get the key for a new home unless they get the key and then begin living in the property on the same day.
For this application, you should know that we use 'move in' when the location of the new home is implied or has already been mentioned in the conversation. However, when you want to specify the location (e.g. new home), the particle needs to change from 'in' to 'into'. I will explain more about this and why this is important at the end of the post.
I can’t believe we finally move in tomorrow!
We move in on Saturday after the keys are handed over.
He asked when I was going to move in permanently.
We’re going to move into a new house next month.
She moved into an apartment near her office.
They moved into their first home after getting married.
We can also use this application to talk about starting to live with someone, often when the location is not important. This is typical for friends or couples who decide to live together in the same property and for this we simply need the extra prepositional particle 'with'....
Emma and Alex moved in with each other after dating for only 2 months!
I left home at 16 and moved in with some friends.
Ben has asked me to move in with him. I am not sure if it is too soon!
You should also note that this application is not just used for individuals, but also extends to companies and businesses when they move to new premises or headquarters.
The company has purchased a new office and is moving in early next year.
The startup is moving into larger premises to support its growing team.
After the merger, the firm moved into a shared headquarters.
Lastly, you will note that all of the examples so far have been inseparable with no direct object. There are some instances when you can use this application of 'move in' separably however and this is when you want to talk about 'moving a person into a house or home'.
This usage is rarer than the others and is used for times when one person moves in to a house with someone who already lives there. The idea here is that the person who already lives in the house invites the other person to live with them and possibly even arranges it. This can sometimes carry a negative or judgemental nuance, especially if the speaker does not agree with the co-habitation of the two people for some reason.
Once my Mum was too old and frail to look after herself properly, we moved her into our house, so I could care for her.
Michael had only been seeing Jenny for a couple of week before her moved her into his house. I think it was far too soon
MEANING 2: To go towards something
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To close in on, to advance on, to stalk |
Separable? | No |
Our second meaning of 'move in' is not as common as the previous one but is one that you can still hear fairly often in everyday English and means 'to go towards something'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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To clarify this meaning, we do not use this application of 'move in' to talk about a general movement e.g. walking to the shop or driving to work. Rather, it is used specifically to describe when you move towards something with the intention of attacking it, stopping it or taking control of it in some way.
As you can probably guess, it carries a more aggressive or authoritative tone than just 'go towards' on its own, which is very neutral.
You should note that for this example, similar to the previous one, we use 'move in' on its own when the direct object (receiving the action) is already known or implied. When you want to specify the object about to be attacked or captured, we need the extra preposition 'on', giving us 'to move in on something'.
For example, if you imagine a cat that is creeping closer to a mouse that it wants to catch, you can say that "the cat is moving in on the mouse". Another common example that you may hear is in reference to the police; when a police operation takes place and multiple police officers are simultaneously moving towards a target or criminal that they want to arrest, we can say that "they are moving in (on the criminal)".
The police moved in to arrest the suspect.
Security forces moved in as the crowd became violent.
The army moved in at dawn to secure the area.
Firefighters moved in once the building was declared stable.
The cheetah quietly moved in on the gazelle.
Police officers have been ordered to move in on the suspect quietly.
We can also use this application in reference to romance and dating, although this is not necessarily a positive usage. In some contexts, if someone moves in on someone, it means that they try to flirt with someone or ask them out on a date when there is an opportunity to do so. This is considered quite pushy or predatory behaviour however, so caution should be applied when describing flirting this way.
Stan moved in on the girl at the bar when he saw his chance.
After Sarah and Mark broke up, John saw his chance and moved in on Sarah, who was no impressed!
MEANING 3: To involve oneself in a situation
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To take advantage, to get involved |
Separable? | No |
Let's now move on to the third and final application of 'move in', which I would say is the rarest of the three and means 'to involve oneself in a situation'.
This application is all about opportunities and taking them when they arise. A bit like with the romantic example that I explained in the previous section, we use this application to talk about when a person, organisation or business sees an opportunity to become involved in an activity and does so.
Typically, the person 'moving in' was never involved in this activity before as it was something that was done by a specific group of people. Similar to the previous application, they see their target and move straight towards it in order to participate in the activity for the first time. This may be a company who sees a gap in a market that they want to fill or a government intervening in an industry to regulate or improve it.
Note that we would not use 'on' here as this would imply the idea of a target or objective that we had in the previous application. This application is often used in a much more neutral way.
I appreciate that this is one is not an easy one to grasp, so here are some example sentences to show you how to use it....
Several international firms moved in when the market opened up.
Tech companies are moving in to renewable energy.
Smaller investors moved in after the initial risks were reduced.
The government moved in to regulate the new industry.
Non-profits moved in to support local communities.
Independent artists moved in as the genre gained popularity.
BONUS: One final note on usage - avoid this common mistake!
There is one other time that you may see 'move in' being used in English that I have not yet covered in this post, which is not strictly a phrasal verb usage but I want to include it all the same as it links to an error that I often hear my students make.
If something is physically moving inside an interior space, we can say that it is "moving in the space". For example, if a mouse creeps into your shopping bag and you can see the bag moving as a result, you might say "there is something moving in the bag". In other words, something inside the bag is moving and all of the movement is taking place inside the bag.
Let's now think back to the first meaning of 'move in', i.e. to start living in a new home. The reason why you should always remember to use 'into' when specifying the location of your new home is because if you don't, it will sound like this last usage to a native speaker's ears (although they will likely understand what you mean from the context).
BONUS: The idiom 'to move in circles'
Whilst we are talking about this final literal usage, I should let you know about the expression 'to move in circles'. We use this to talk about how a person lives or spends their time, for example what type of people they spend their time with or in what types of environment.
Harriet moves in artistic circles.
He moves in political circles in Washington.
I don’t really move in those circles anymore, to be honest, so I wouldn't know.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'move in'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'move in'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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