2.158 indicating excess

If you want to indicate that you think someone or something has an excessive amount of a quality, you normally use the submodifier 'too' in front of a qualitative adjective which is used predicatively.

• My feet are too big.
• It was too hot.
• Dad thought I was too idealistic.

'Too' can be followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with 'for' to indicate a person involved or a 'to-' infinitive clause to indicate a related action.

• The shoes were too big for him.
• He was too old for that sort of thing.
• She was too weak to lift me.
• He was too proud to apologise.

Note that you do not usually use 'too' with an adjective in front of a noun, although you do use 'too' in front of the determiners 'many', 'much', and 'few'.

• 'You ask too many questions, Sam'.
• There is too much chance of error.
• Too few people nowadays are interested in Literature.