The Phrasal Verb 'Turn In' Explained
- Phrasal Verbs Explained
- 6 days ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'turn 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.
How well do you think you know the phrasal verb 'turn in'? Would you be surprised to learn that it has at least 6 different meanings in English, including 3 that are mainly used in American English? My aim in this post is to explain these different uses and applications to enable you to understand them well and know when to use them. I will also provide you with lots of example sentences to help with this. So, without further ado, let's make a start....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
TURN IN: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 6 |
Past tense forms | Turned in / Turned in |
Separable? | Sometimes |
To begin our exploration on the phrasal verb 'turn in', lets first familiarise ourselves with its component words 'turn' and 'in' and what they mean on their own....
Turn - As a learner of English, I am sure that you will already be familiar with the verb 'to turn' as it is a very common verb in English and has various different meanings. Generally speaking, it is mainly used to talk about a change of some sort, which can be anything from the direction of a movement or a change in the direction that something faces, to changes in seasons and in people's moods. Unlike many common verbs in English, 'to turn' is regular and takes the standard '-ed' ending in both past tense forms.
I turn my head to look at what was happening.
The car turned right at the traffic lights.
The roast chicken was turning on the grill.
I am turning 21 next year.
The atmosphere at the party turned ugly when an argument began.
In - The prepositional particle 'in' is another word that you will be very familiar if your English is good enough to understand this blog post. 'In' appears in many different phrasal verbs and often (logically) adds the idea of a movement from the exterior to the interior of something (go in, throw in). Additionally, 'in' can also add others ideas to phrasal verbs like completion (fill in), interruption (cut in) and inclusion (join in).
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'turn in'....
MEANING 1: To point inwards
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To point inwards |
Separable? | Yes |
For our first application of the phrasal verb 'turn in', we have the literal meaning of the combination of these two words, which is 'to point inwards'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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To arrive at this first meaning, we are simply integrating the idea of a change in the direction that something faces that we get from the verb 'to turn', with the idea of a movement towards an interior or central space that we get from the particle 'in'.
This is not a hugely common application in English and tends mainly to be used with feet, toes and other body parts. For example, if someone turns their feet in, they point the front ends of each foot towards the centre of their body, while leaving the back ends of the feet in the same place (like in the photo above).
As such, this usage can often be heard in a medical context, particularly with children who can suffer from this kind of problem. Other times that you may come across this application would be when doing physical exercise like yoga and stretching or when having physical therapy.
The doctor explained that it is common for a child's feet to turn in slightly when they first start walking.
Since Ellie's right foot tends to turn in, she sometimes trips over her own toes while running.
To target the muscles on the outside of your leg, stand upright and turn in your toes before leaning forward.
Make sure you don't let your knees turn in during the squat and keep them aligned over your ankles.
Adrian made a big effort to keep his feet straight, as they naturally wanted to turn in whenever he relaxed.
Whenever a person's body parts are in this position, you can use the adjectival form 'turned-in' to describe this. Note that we only tend to use the hyphenated (turned-in) form when it comes before the noun and the hyphen (-) is not required if the noun comes after it.
Despite his turned-in feet, Malcolm was surprisingly agile on the football pitch.
Unlike the open posture of ballet, this contemporary routine requires a closed, turned-in leg position.
The first thing that I noticed as I watched myself run was how my feet were slightly turned in.
MEANING 2: To go to bed
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To go to bed, to retire, to hit the sack, to hit the hay, to bed down |
Separable? | No |
Next on our journey through the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'turn in', we are going to be transported to the end of the day as the second meaning that we will look at is 'to go to bed'.
This one is quite a nice and simple usage as it is really just a synonym of 'to go to bed' and tends to be used at the end of the day rather than when you go for an afternoon nap or snooze. It's almost like it is used by people as a way of declaring an official end to the day.
This usage is quite an informal one and according to some sources is a little old-fashioned. Personally, I don't use this one often but I do hear it from time to time. On a grammatical note, this usage is not separable and we do not use it with reflexive ('self') pronouns as this might lead to confusion with another application that we will look at shortly.
I’m exhausted; I think I am going to turn in!
The couple usually turn in around 10 pm on weekdays.
After the long hike, we were all ready to turn in.
Rosie turned in right after dinner because she wasn’t feeling well.
It was getting late, so Matt decided to turn in for the night as had to be up early for work the next day.
I think we should turn in soon; we have an early flight tomorrow.
The children were told to turn in once the movie ended.
I turned in earlier than usual and still somehow woke up tired.
MEANING 3: To deliver someone to the police
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To deliver, to surrender, to give up, to inform on, to denounce, to grass up |
Separable? | Yes |
Our third meaning of 'turn in' that we will look at is perhaps the most commonly used of all of its different applications and means 'to deliver someone to the police'.
I imagine that most of you reading this are good law-abiding citizens and therefore have never been involved in any criminal activities or know any criminals. However, if you did know any criminals or learned that someone you knew was accused of a crime, you may, as a responsible citizen, want to report them to the police. By doing so, you would be 'turning that person in' because you would be informing the police about who committed the crime and possibly even where they could find the criminal.
You can use 'turn in' to talk about physically taking the offender to the police and handing them over or simply giving the police or the authorities the information that they need to catch and punish the criminal.
Grammatically speaking, this is a separable usage, with the criminal or wrongdoer going either between 'turn' and 'in' or after, without making any difference to the meaning. Remember that if you are using a pronoun (him, her) to refer to the criminal, this must go between 'turn' and 'in'.
Kelly decided to turn in her brother when she learned he was wanted for theft.
Bob urged his friend to turn the criminals in before things got worse.
The gang member was turned in by an anonymous person.
The gangsters threatened to turn him in unless he confessed the truth.
A worried neighbour turned the fugitive in after recognising him from a poster.
In the previous section where I explained that 'turn in' can mean to go to bed, I mentioned that you cannot use that application with a reflexive ('self) pronoun. This is because if you do, it might confuse a native speaker as we typically use this third application with a 'self' reflexive pronoun to talk about when somebody goes to the police or the authorities to admit a crime or wrongdoing that they have done. In these cases, the '-self' pronoun always goes between 'turn' and 'in'.
The suspect turned himself in after seeing his face on the front of every newspaper.
After days on the run, Joe finally turned himself in to the local police station.
Marco's parents convinced him to turn himself in and cooperate with the investigation.
MEANING 4: To submit something
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | American English |
Potential synonyms | To hand in, to submit, to give in |
Separable? | Yes |
The fourth meaning of 'turn in' is one that is common in American English and is one that I think logically follows the third one, which is 'to submit something'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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When I say 'submit something' here, what I actually mean is to formally give a document or a request to an authority, teacher or organisation so that it can be evaluated and assessed. This is normally so that a decision can then be made about it or somebody can act upon it. For example, you might turn in your history essay just before the deadline or a team of auditors may turn in their audit report to the CEO of a business when they have finished the audit.
As you can see in the list of commonly used nouns above, the type of nouns that are typically used with this application tend to be formal or procedural documents, ranging from job applications to academic essays.
You will have noted that this usage is primarily American English, however due to how common American English is around the world and in the media, I am confident that it would be understood by most, if not all, English native speakers. In British English, whilst we do understand and infrequently use this, we would be more inclined to say 'hand in' instead.
Don’t forget to turn in your application before the deadline tomorrow.
All students must turn in their Biology essays electronically.
Alan turned in his resignation letter first thing this morning.
The volunteers turned in their time sheets to the charity at the end of the week.
We've been asked to turn in our evaluations after the workshop.
They turned in the final draft to their supervisor for her approval.
Dave turned in his proposal, hoping that it would be accepted.
The team turned in the data that they had collected during the experiment.
Each contestant must turn in their entry by noon.
The interns turned in their weekly reports every Friday afternoon before going to the pub.
MEANING 5: To return something
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | American English |
Potential synonyms | To return, to give back |
Separable? | Yes |
Let's now move on to our fifth meaning of 'turn in', which is another mainly American usage to mean 'to return something'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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To clarify, what I mean by returning something is 'to give something back', normally that you have borrowed or caused to have been in possession of for a period of time.
A classic example of this would be a library. To clarify, a library in English is a false friend in many languages and is not a place where you buy books but the place where you borrow them and is normally a variation of 'bibliotech' in many languages (for reference, you buy books at a bookshop or bookstore). After you have borrowed a book from a library, you will need to return it or 'turn it in' on or before the due date. In other words, you are simply giving back what belongs to them.
Other situations in which you may hear or need to use this application of 'turn in' is in relation to equipment, particularly that which you may need to possess temporarily for your job e.g. keys to a building or a security badge to enable you to enter a department. When you no longer need the item or finish work for the day, you will need to turn it in to the company.
Usually, with this application we turn an item in to a company, organisation or some form of authority. It is also possible to use it to talk about scenarios in which you find something that has been lost and you give it to the police or the central point of an organisation who can try and reunite it with its owner.
Please make sure you turn in your badges when you leave the building.
Kathy turned in the lost wallet to the reception desk.
Everyone must turn in their equipment before the trip ends tomorrow.
Please turn in your library books today; they’re overdue and will incur fines if left any longer.
Becky turned in her badge and keys on her last day in her job.
MEANING 6: To produce good results
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | American English |
Potential synonyms | To achieve, to produce, to record |
Separable? | No |
We are now on our sixth and final application of the phrasal verb 'turn in', which is our third American usage in a row and means 'to get good results'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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For this usage, we can talk about producing or getting good results in various different areas of life, which include sport, work, business and artistic performances. Whenever someone does something that is particularly good, remarkable or worthy of applause, we can use 'turn in' to say this. As a result, it is often found in news reports on sport, business news and performance reviews.
Normally with this application, we use the construction 'turn in + the good thing' e.g. result, performance or profit. Although it is separable, it is not typically used that way and I would avoid separating it in this case.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the section, this is an American usage and not one that I am used to hearing or using as a British English speaker. However, I can understand it perfectly well when I do hear it being used.
The pitcher turned in one of his best games of the season.
The team managed to turn in a strong performance in the playoffs.
Nadia turned in a flawless routine in the gymnastics competition.
The sprinter is aiming to turn in an impressive time in the final.
The company turned in solid earnings for the third quarter of the year.
Tech stocks turned in strong gains across global stock markets today.
The actor turned in a remarkable performance in the movie.
The pianist attempted to turn in an emotionally compelling recital.
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 'turn 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 'turn 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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THE END