VERY vs. TOO
English grammar lesson
Look at these two sentences
The coffee is very hot, but I can drink it.
The coffee is too hot. I can't drink it.
We use VERY and TOO before an adjective.
VERY + adjective ... and... TOO + adjective
In both sentences the adjective is hot
so we say very hot and too hot.
What is the difference in meaning?
Very hot means it is hot but possible to drink.
Too hot means it is not possible to drink,
probably because I will burn myself.
VERY means a high degree or a very large amount.
TOO normally has a negative meaning.
Let's look at another example:
The fridge is very heavy, but Mike can lift it.
Here we are saying it is difficult for Mike
but it is still possible for him to lift it.
The fridge is too heavy. Steve can't lift it.
Here we are saying it is NOT possible for Steve to lift it.
It is impossible because it is too heavy for him.
You can see that in this sentence TOO has a negative meaning again.
One more example:
It was very cold, but we played football anyway.
Yes, it was difficult but still possible.
My legs were frozen but we still had a good time.
It was too cold to play football so we stayed at home.
Again TOO has a negative meaning.
TOO cold means it was excessively cold
so it was not possible to play football.
Note: we do NOT say it was very much cold or too much cold.
No, these are not correct in English.
We will see more about too much and too many in another lesson.
In the last sentence, we used a verb after the adjective cold.
This verb is in its infinitive form: to play.
When there is a verb after TOO + Adjective,
we use its infinitive form.
After VERY we can use an adverb.
There is a verb before these, so the structure is
verb + very + adverb or TOO instead of VERY.
Let's look at VERY first.
Our example sentences:
She ran very quickly and won the race.
She didn't just run quickly,
she ran very quickly which is why she won the race.
We played very badly and lost.
Note, it is better to use another adverb instead of
very + adverb.
For example, instead of saying very badly
you could say terribly.
We played terribly and lost.
We can also create a sentence using TOO instead of VERY.
Verb + too + adverb
He drove too quickly and had an accident.
I arrived too early and nobody was there.
He speaks too quietly. I can't hear what he says.
You can see again that TOO usually has a negative meaning or result.
He drove too quickly
and the negative result of this
he had an accident.
I arrived too early
and the negative result of this
I had nobody to talk to.
I hope you found this English lesson about the difference between VERY and TOO useful.
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