Too / Enough

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Gold Forest English podcast. My name is Jordan and today I want to talk about the word too - T O O - is a very common word in English. We use it a lot, but it can be a bit confusing to students because it has a very specific rule that is not obvious. So let's get started.

The word too is used in English, along with adjectives, so it's too hot, too cold, too sleepy, too dangerous. We use too with adjectives to show that something has more than we need more than is good. It's almost always a negative thing. This is the really important thing about the word too. It's almost always talking about a problem situation, a negative thing, so we can say that the weather is too hot. You're not feeling comfortable because it's very hot. There's uncomfortable heat. You could say that you feeling too tired. You can't do your work, you can't do anything because you're feeling very sleepy. You're feeling very tired. There's a problem. We can use too with positive adjectives, things that are often good, but we are presenting them as a negative problem. For example, sweet, if something is sweet, like sugar things, if something is sweet, that's often good. If we say something is too sweet, it means that the level of sugar is actually bad for you. There's too much sugar. The level of sugar is too high. It's bad. There's a problem and you don't enjoy it. So this is the really important thing about the word too. It's that we are almost always using it to talk about a negative problem.

Okay. Another word that is similar to too is the word enough. Enough means the right amount, the correct amount. It's a good amount. We need this much and we have this much. The meaning is normally positive or it might be neutral just normal. So we use the word enough to say the correct amount, the right amount, things like, I am strong enough to carry this bag. The bag is heavy, but I can carry it. I'm strong enough. We use enough with adjectives, the adjective goes before the word enough. Tall enough, strong enough. loud enough, the adjective goes before the word enough, or we can use them with nouns, like I have enough money. I'd have enough time. So we can use the word enough with a noun, the noun comes after the word enough, or we can use with adjectives, and the adjective goes before the word enough. So, too - TOO - means more than we need, and it's a problem. Enough means the correct amount, a good amount. We can use it with um we can use enough with positive sentences. I am tall enough to reach that high shelf. There's something high up on the shelf and I can reach it because I'm tall enough. We can use it with negatives. He is not tall enough. He is short he cannot reach the high shelf. He's not tall enough and we can use it with questions. Are you tall enough? Are you tall enough using it as a question?

So, too and enough, very common words in English, but the very important thing is that one of them is negative, it's too, and one of them is normally positive or could be neutral, just normal. That's the word enough. All right. So be careful when you use the word too, especially, because saying a sentence like she's too kind, it sounds like a problem. She's too kind, it sounds like you have a problem with this. It's you're not happy with her. She's very kind. She's really kind. These are much better accurate, positive sentences. She's very kind. She's really kind. But if we say she's too kind, it makes it seem like a problem. So be careful when you use the word too especially.

All right. That's it for today's podcast. I hope you can use the word too and enough in your practicing and your English speech. I've got a full blog post on the website if you want some more detail, some more examples, and some more other points that are connected so please check out the blog post on gold forest academy.com where you can learn more about these words and connected things. Thank you very much for listening. I hope you have a nice day and I'll see you in the next episode.