Too

Use 

What is too?  Too is an adverb, and we use the adverbs to emphasize the adjectives or other adverbs. Too means, more or less than needed, more or less than we want and more than enough. It has a negative meaning!

My coffee was too cold. (colder than I like, I didn’t like it.)

Recently I have been to a new restaurant here in my city. Let's read what I think of the new restaurant and have a look at how I used too in this short paragraph.

Do you like eating out? I do, but sometimes it’s difficult to find a good restaurant. 

There’s a new restaurant in town, I wanted to try it out, and recently I’ve been there. Did I enjoy it? Not really! Here is the reason why:

First of all, It was too crowded inside. I waited for ten minutes to find a place to sit.
Then, I ordered a soup. The soup was too salty. Yuck!
After the meal, I ordered a cup of coffee. My coffee was too cold. There were cookies with the coffee, but I didn’t eat them, because they were too hard.
And the music was too loud.

In the first sentence, I said, It was too crowded inside, it means the restaurant was full of people, more than I want, and I was not happy with that.

The soup was too salty means it was more salty than I need or I want, it was difficult to eat it. 

My coffee was too cold means it was colder than I needed it to be. It was so cold that I did not like it.

As you can see in these examples, too has a negative meaning. When you use it with adjectives as in too crowded, or with adverbs as in too fast it means more than enough.

Form

Too + adjective and Too + adverb

We can use too before adjectives or adverbs:

• Do you have size xl of this dress? This one is too small. (too before adjective)
• Can I call you later? I’m too busy. (too before adjective)
• I need to go home now. It’s too late. (too before adjective)
• Can you turn on the lights, please? It’s too dark here. (too before adjective) 
• I don’t understand him. He speaks too fast. (too before adverb)
• People walk too slowly. It makes me angry. (too before adverb)
• Young children speak too loudly on public transport. (too before adverb)

Too much + noun and Too many + noun

Too much or too many mean more than we want or needed.

We use too much with uncountable nouns and too many with countable nouns. For example money is uncountable, we say too much money, people is countable, we say too many people.

• You spend too much money on clothes. (= It is not good, you spend more than you should.)
• I don’t want to spend too much time outside. Let’s go home.
• What a mess! There are too many toys here on the floor.
• Such a busy day! There are too many emails to reply.

Too + adjective for somebody or Too + adjective for something

• This question is too difficult for me.
• This shirt is too small for him.
• I’m too old for rollercoaster.
• This frame is too big for the photo.

You can also say: too + adjective for somebody/something + to do something

• The dessert is too sweet for me to eat.
• This hotel is too expensive for me to stay.

Too + adjective + to do something

• It’s too cold to go on a picnic.
• I’m too tired to cook. Let’s order pizza.
• You should sleep now. It’s too late to watch a film.
• I don’t know where to go this summer. It’s too difficult to decide.
• I don’t know what to get her for her birthday. It’s too difficult to decide.
• The exam was too difficult to pass.

Ready to Practice?

Click here to try an exercise about the use of too + adjectives.

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