2.159 WARNING

'Too' always means of 'more than you want'. It cannot be used instead of 'very'. Rather than saying 'I am too happy to meet you', you must say 'I am very happy to meet you.'

2.160

Other words that indicate too much of a quality are 'excessively', 'overly', and the prefix 'over-'. These can be used, like 'too', with predicative adjectives, and also with attributive adjectives.

• ...excessively high accident rates.
• ...an intellectual but over-cautious man.
• They were overly eager.

'Overly' is used mainly in American English.