Is It “Integrate In”, “Integrate Into”, or “Integrate With”?

Knowing what preposition you should use can be hard. Many people are confused about whether you should use “Integrate in”, “Integrate into” or “Integrate with”. This article aims to clarify what each of the phrases mean, and the difference in contextual use between them.

Is It “Integrate In”, “Integrate Into”, Or “Integrate With”?

“Integrate in”, “Integrate into” and “Integrate with” are all grammatically correct phrases, and they all hold slightly different meanings. “In” means to combine many things into a whole, and “Into” means that something becomes part of a larger whole. “With” means to combine two groups together.

“Integrate in” and “Integrate into” can be interchangeable, but they can also hold the slightly different nuance of the regular meaning of integration and integration from a small element into a larger element respectively.

What Does “Integrate In” Mean?

“Integrate in” means to become part of a new group of people, changing the self to adapt to their traditions and customs. It’s often used to talk about members of minority groups adapting to larger society.

“Integrate in” is similar to the standard way to refer to the act of integration, without a preposition, and is a fairly common expression to see in use.

Here’s a few example sentences that showcase proper use of the expression:

1. I’m afraid I’ll have difficulties integrating in my new school.
2. You will have to integrate in your new town.
3. She’s going to have to integrate in her new workplace at some point.
4. The new ducks are going to integrate in the park.
5. I will have integrated in the apartment by then.
6. We have integrated in companies many times.
7. It’s important to consider how the integration in the new land will go.
8. Integrating in the soil are my new basil plants.
9. She had integrated in the street and her store didn’t feel out of place now.
10. The integration in the bone is the most important part of the surgery.

What Does “Integrate Into” Mean?

“Integrate into” holds the same broad meaning as “Integrate in”, which is to adapt to a larger group and become used to its customs.

However, “Integrate into” can specifically refer to a smaller group becoming part of a larger whole.

While “Integrate into” can be a synonym for “Integrate in”, it can also hold this nuance of a smaller part of a larger whole specifically.

Here’s a few example sentences if you’re having difficulty understanding its use:

1. He’s going to have to integrate into the larger student body.
2. I’m going to integrate into the company and find out the truth.
3. They’re going to integrate into our building.
4. We’re going to integrate into the club and learn its practices.
5. We’re considering integration into the main government.
6. I’ve discussed how I integrated into this country before.
7. He’s going to have integrated into our lives by then.
8. Their integration into this street has been admirable.
9. I’ll integrate into their customs with ease.
10. It’s important to always consider integration into the other party.

What Does “Integrate With” Mean?

“Integrate with” means to combine two separate groups into one larger group. The “With” preposition shifts integration into two similarly sized groups that are merging.

While “Integrate in” and “Integrate into” can be synonyms and equivalents in a given sentence, “Integrate with” cannot, because it holds its own specific meaning all of the time.

“Integrate with” specifically implies two groups merging together, rather than an entity merging into a larger group or adapting to the larger group.

If you’re confused by the difference between “Integrate with” and the other phrases, here are some examples:

1. I think we need to consider integration with the other bloc.
2. I’d like to propose integration with the other political party.
3. We’re going to have to integrate with the other street.
4. He’s going to integrate his plan with her plan tomorrow night.
5. I’m going to have integrated my program with her program by then.
6. She’s integrated her architecture proposal with ours skillfully.
7. I’ll integrate with her computer and solve the issue.
8. We’re going to integrate with their culture and create a new culture.
9. I’m going to consider integration with the other committee’s set of solutions.
10. He’ll integrate his code with their documents and make new documentation.

Are “Integrate In”, “Integrate Into”, And “Integrate With” Interchangeable?

“Integrate in” and “Integrate into” are interchangeable, despite slight differences in nuance. “Integrate with”, however, is not interchangeable with the other expressions.

While it is true that “Integrate into” generally holds its own specific meaning of a smaller part integrating into a larger whole, it’s still generally used interchangeably with “Integrate in”, in spite of this nuance.

However, “Integrate with” is not interchangeable with the other expressions. This is because “Integrate with” implies a degree of equivalence in what is being merged.

When you use “Integrate with”, you’re implying that two things are merging as equals, and that the final result is an equal mix of both the original things.

This implication is generally not present with “Integrate in ” and “Integrate into”, particularly the latter, as its generally used to imply a smaller element merging with a larger one.

Is “Integrate In”, “Integrate Into”, Or “Integrate With” Used The Most?

According to information compiled by the Google Ngram Viewer, “Integrate into” is the most common phrase, followed by “Integrate with” and “Integrate in”.

The data reveals the fact that in the year 1900, all three expressions barely were used, though the one that saw the most use was “Integrate with”.

Over the decades, they all grew in use. “Integrate in” has seen the slowest growth, which leads it to be the least used of the three expressions.

“Integrate with” had the quickest initial growth, though a slight decrease in use from the 1960s to the 1980s meant that it was overtaken in growth by “Integrate into”.

While “Integrate with” has had a decrease in growth since the year 2008, “Integrate into” has kept itself fairly consistent, and holds a sizable lead over the other phrases.

When Should I Use “Integrate To”?

“Integrate to” is not a combination that is generally used. You shouldn’t use “Integrate to”, you should instead try to convey what you want to say using “Integrate into” or “Integrate in”.

Adding the “To” preposition to “Integrate” is not strictly correct, and the people who use it are normally trying to say something that they could say using “Integrate into” just as easily.

“Integrate to” is an awkward, not strictly grammatically correct phrase, and is best avoided.

Just in case, here’s a few examples to showcase how unnatural that phrase looks:

1. Incorrect: I want to integrate to my new school.
2. Incorrect: She’s going to integrate to her new program.
3. Incorrect: They’re going to integrate to their new home.
4. Incorrect: We’re choosing to integrate to the new conference.
5. Incorrect: He’s integrating to the new venue pretty quickly.

Is It Ever Correct To Use “Integrate” Without A Preposition?

Yes, it can be correct to use “Integrate” without a preposition. It can be used to imply the addition of new people to a society or group.

While prepositions help clarify what exactly is being integrated in which situations, it’s not unheard of to see people use “Integrate” without a preposition.

Here’s a few examples of “Integrate” without a preposition:

1. I will integrate the old documents.
2. They integrated the immigrants.
3. We’re going to integrate the case files.
4. He’s going to integrate his old code.
5. We’re integrating the presentation.