Mike helps John to get on the flatcar.
Mike helps John to get on to the flatcar.
Mike helps John to get on flatcar.
Mike helps John to get on to flatcar.
Mike helps John to get onto flatcar.
Note, I’m referring to a flatcar, so you can’t use “get in”.
Answer
First of all you need the; without it flatcar becomes a name for something, and probably should be capitalized.
Second, “getting on the flatcar” and “getting onto the flatcar” are interchangeable, but “getting on to the flatcar” means something else.
For example if you had to wash the flatcar and the boxcar, you might say, “I need to finish up this boxcar and then I can get on to the flatcar.” In this case the phrasal verb is “get on” and the prepositional phrase is “to the flatcar” and get on means to move on to the next thing on the list.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : T2E , Answer Author : Jim
