ESEN
Which one to use?Beginnerinfinitivenoun
Too + adjectivevsAdjective + enough
'Too' + adjective indicates excess (prevents something); adjective + 'enough' indicates sufficiency (something is possible).
Side-by-side comparison
Too + adjective
infinitive"Too + adjective" indicates an excess that creates a problem: more than is desirable. "It's too cold" implies the cold prevents doing something or is unpleasant.
The bag is too heavy to carry on the plane, you will have to check it in at the desk.
The coffee was too hot to drink, so she waited a few minutes for it to cool down a bit.
The flat was too small for a family of four, there was barely room for a dining table.
Adjective + enough
noun"Adjective + enough" indicates the necessary level for something: sufficient to achieve a result. "It's warm enough" implies the temperature allows something to happen.
She is old enough to travel alone now, she has done it several times before.
Is the room warm enough, or should I turn the heating up a little?
He did not study hard enough and failed the exam by just three points in the end.
Common mistake
Most frequent errors:
- 1.ENOUGH before the adjective: "She is enough smart" = wrong. Correct: "She is smart ENOUGH". ENOUGH always after the adjective.
- 2.TOO as a synonym for VERY: "This is too interesting" implies the interest level is excessive and negative; "This is very interesting" is neutral/positive.
- 3.Omitting TO in the full structure: "It is too complex understand" = wrong; "It is too complex TO UNDERSTAND" = correct.
Trick to remember it
- •Position = which way you cross the line: TOO BEFORE the adjective = you went past it (excess, negative consequence). ENOUGH AFTER the adjective = you just reached it (sufficiency, positive consequence).
- •TOO → you overshot. ENOUGH ← you landed right on it.
Quick rule
TOO + adj = negative excess: "too long / too expensive." Adj + ENOUGH = sufficiency: "long enough / fast enough." ENOUGH + noun = "enough time." Never "enough complex". ENOUGH always after the adjective.
Did you know?
Word order in English for degree modifiers is grammatically mandatory, not merely stylistic. "Smart enough" and "enough smart" are not equivalent: the second is simply wrong. This positional rigidity contrasts with Spanish, where "suficientemente inteligente" and "inteligente suficientemente" are both possible. English has fixed positions for many modifiers: adjectives go BEFORE the noun (not after as in Spanish), ENOUGH goes AFTER the adjective, and TOO goes BEFORE the adjective. Linguists call this "fixed word order". English compensates for the lack of morphological cases (nominative, accusative, dative) by using order to indicate grammatical function.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
The bag is _____ heavy to carry on my own. Can you help?
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The hotel room wasn't big _____ for four people. It felt cramped.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
ComparativevsSuperlative
The comparative compares two things; the superlative designates the extreme in a group of three or more.
ToovsVery
'Too' indicates excess preventing something; 'very' intensifies without implying a negative result; 'enough' means sufficient.
AvsAn
'A' is used before consonant sounds; 'an' is used before vowel sounds.
A lot ofvsMany
'A lot of' works for countable and uncountable; 'many' only for countable; 'much' only for uncountable.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy