Too

We usetooimmediately before adjectives and adverbs:

This coffee istoosweet.

Not:This coffee is too much sweet.

I can’t sleep. It’stoohot.

It happenedtooquickly, so I just didn’t see it.

Not:It happened too much quickly.

The car was travellingtoofast and went out of control.

The water wastoocold to swimin.

Two hours istoolong to wait.

When we want to talk about quantities which are more or less than enough, we usetoo much, too many, too fewandtoo littlebefore a noun:

There’stoomuchsalt in this soup.(too much+ uncountable noun)

There weretoo manydogs on the beach.(too many+ countable noun)

I don’t like this book because there aretoo fewpictures in it.(too few+ countable noun; more formal thanI don’t like this book because there aren’t enough pictures in it.)

The trip was cancelled because there wastoo littleinterest in it.(too little+ uncountable noun)

We can usemuchandfarwithtoofor emphasis.Far toois stronger thanmuch too:

We useveryto add emphasis to an adjective or an adverb, but it does not mean the same astoo.

We often usevery muchto emphasise verbs such aslike, dislike, hope, doubt. We do not usetoo muchin this way with these verbs:

I like itvery muchbecause I got it from my husband.

Not:I like it too much…

I doubtvery muchthat Ronan will be able to come to the party.

Not:I doubt too much that…

• We don’t usetooto emphasise adjectives and adverbs. We usevery:

She wasverybeautiful.(veryemphasisesbeautiful)

Not:She was too beautiful.