too

too

1. Too is the normal word used to qualify an adjective or adverb to denote excess: The house is too large / I spoke too soon. It should not be used to qualify a participial adjective when this could not idiomatically be qualified by very: She was too tired is acceptable because tired has acquired the role of an ordinary adjective, but She was too affected by their criticisms is less satisfactory because affected is still regarded as part of a verb. In this case a better alternative is She was too much affected by their criticisms or She was excessively affected by their criticisms.

2. When too qualifies an adjective followed by a noun, the usual order is (for example) too large a house rather than a too large house. In more complex sentences it is often preferable to rephrase in order to avoid a clumsy sequence of words with too; for example, The incident arose from a too sudden reaction to the danger would be better expressed as The incident arose because they reacted too suddenly to the danger.