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I always thought login is the noun and log in is the verb. For example, "you need to log in using the modal login window". Is this really the case or can they be used interchangeably? Does logout and log out follow the same rule?

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Pretty sure Donald Norman wrote an essay on this topic quite some time ago. Sadly, google is not my friend with these keywords. – Erics Oct 11 '11 at 7:23
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fwiw, we're using "sign in" here. – Erics Oct 11 '11 at 7:23
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login is not a verb. log in is a verb phrase. more info on english.se – Roger Attrill Oct 11 '11 at 10:56
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When I clicked to give you a thumbs up it said: "Please login or register to vote for this post." – Vala Dec 8 '12 at 19:42
Somewhat related: ux.stackexchange.com/questions/20595/… (not saying it's a duplicate) – greenforest Dec 10 '12 at 17:42

1 Answer

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"Login" is a noun or adjective. "Log in" is a verb.

Go to the login page. - adjective

Go to your login. - noun

Log in to twitter. - verb

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Same rule for "logout" and "log out," although logout is rarely used as an adjective ("logout page?") and has no meaning as a noun as far as I can figure. But the verb is "log out." – Evan Oct 11 '11 at 13:14
This never occurred to me, thanks for taking the time to answer. Makes sense. – Anonymous Oct 12 '11 at 14:33
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Not sure login can serve as an adjective, so as lion is not an adjective in "Go to the lion cage". – Dvir Adler Dec 9 '12 at 6:03

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