This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 2330.
To, or really, avoid this common English grammar mistake.
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We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter.
The IELTS Wiz and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish .com forward slash subscribe.
In today's episode, we point out a common mistake with the words to and really.
Listen in to find out exactly how to fix this mistake today.
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Hey there, Aubrey. How's it going today?
I'm great, Lindsay.
Are you too excited about recording today?
Oh my gosh, Aubrey, can you ever be too excited to record?
I mean, I'm always extremely excited to record.
So good point, right?
What I really should ask is are you super excited to record today?
Are you really excited?
This is actually a common mistake that we see, right, Lindsay?
We want to highlight today so that you guys can avoid it.
Yeah, because it was confusing, right?
Your question confused me.
Are you too excited?
That feels like it should be a negative thing, right?
Well, we have to - I can't be too excited.
Definitely not. So before we get into this topic today, I want to remind our listeners to hit that follow button right here on All Airs English.
Why should they follow, Aubrey?
Yes, we have amazing episodes every week.
We talk about connection, not perfection while we teach interesting vocabulary and strategies for improving fluency and confidence in English.
So if you're not following, be sure to hit the follow button.
Exactly. We bring all of our episodes back to human connection, right?
That's the way we do things differently here.
So if that feels good to you, go ahead and hit the follow button, guys.
All right, so what is the common mistake that we're seeing, Aubrey, with our students?
And when we read writing in our community sometimes, what are we seeing the mistake?
What is the mistake?
And it's very, very common, like you pointed out, Lindsay, it's to use the word to about something that you can't have too much of, or you can't be too much of.
So if something's very positive, like excitement, fun, we wouldn't use to this way.
Instead, we'd say really, or extremely, or maybe super, right?
Or the message becomes unclear, like you said, Lindsay.
Really unclear. So for example, here's an example of a very confusing, a mistake that leads to confusion for who hears it, right?
I was too passionate about math, so I studied applied mathematics in school.
So when you say I was too, I expect to hear something negative, like I was too tired to study, so I went to bed.
Exactly, that's where we do use to to mean really, something negative, I was too bored with math, so I didn't study math, right?
Right, right, but then the person said, I was too passionate about math, so I studied applied mathematics, it just becomes very confusing for a native speaker, so we're gonna fix this today.
So instead, there, you would say, I was really passionate about math, or I was extremely passionate about math, so I studied applied mathematics, right?
We can't use to there, so to is an adverb.
That means something is more than what is needed, good, or possible, but English plays tricks on you.
English is really confusing, so we're really gonna break this down today to show you because there are some chunks where we do use to that way.
Yes, we do. And we twist, I know, right?
So we're going to give you everything you need to know, be sure to stay until the end.
All right, sounds good.
So let's give some more examples, Aubrey.
Do we have any more examples of mistakes that we hear?
Well, so these, so we wanna talk a little bit about, to make sure you do understand when you can use to, like Lindsay said, when it's something negative, I was too tired.
Maybe you'd say, I'm too confused by these instructions.
Yes, we do use to to mean very, or really, but only for negative things that you can be too much of.
Yeah. And usually with to, there's some kind of result.
Like I'm too confused by the instructions, I'm just gonna go to YouTube and Google how to do this.
Exactly. It's like you're so confused that you're gonna change course and do something different.
Exactly. Or you might say like, I got a bit too angry when that happened.
Again, you're just saying there was too much of this, there was too much of the anger, so I regret it, right?
I'm acknowledging a fault.
Exactly, right? But we don't use it for positive things, that there can't be too much of, like being too excited for recording.
It doesn't really make sense.
Exactly. And so instead, really very extremely, or there are lots of other fun options.
So we're first going to share a few.
First of all, informal options will often say super.
He was super passionate about literature, so he studied comparative literature.
Yeah, and this word is still trending, right?
It's been trending I feel like for the last five years or so, and it feels like it's still trending, right?
But it's really fun.
It's very, it definitely shows how excited you are about something.
It is much more, there's more emotion than just very or really to say, it was super excited.
And you want to hit it.
This is also going to change your intonation.
You want to say it louder.
Yeah, you have to punch that, right?
Because it is your way of showing your enthusiasm.
It's in that word, the way you deliver it.
It would be strange to be like, I was super passionate about that.
Right, exactly. I mean, they hear the passion in your voice.
Yeah, it's fun to watch words come and go.
And I wonder when this one is going to be on its way out the door, because it's been trendy for a while, Aubrey.
I'm curious as well.
I kind of hope it stays.
I think it's so fun.
All right, and then crazy.
This is interesting.
It's very similar to super, but slightly less common, right?
Yes, also trendy, right?
Also a little kind of slang, informal.
They both mean extremely, but much more informal.
So maybe it was crazy late by the time we left.
Means the same as it was extremely late, but much more informal.
Yeah, I mean, if our listeners can add this to their vocabulary, it really brings things to life and shows what you're really, truly trying to say.
Right? Yes, and definitely replace two with these if you're talking about something positive, right?
Yes, okay, and then, Aubrey, what do we do for formal situations where we don't feel like crazy or super are quite right?
Right, some of these informal ones, crazy, super, or like way, way cool, totally, are not appropriate for every situation, right?
So you can always use extremely, we're extremely pleased to have you join us.
And you know, if this is a formal dinner, I would never say we're super pleased to have you join us, it'd be strange.
It'd be weird, it'd be weird.
We need to have the right word for the context, or amazingly.
They're amazingly good at staying organized.
So these are slightly longer words, take a longer time to say, but yeah, or in a business context, you wouldn't necessarily say, our numbers were crazy good last week.
Unless you work for a small company like us.
I could see small companies here.
Sure, but depending on the meeting, depending on how formal you're trying to be, right, these two options are great, extremely, amazingly.
You can also use just very and really, but those are a little more common and boring.
So these are four options that depending on the situation are more fun.
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Okay, Aubrey, we are back.
So tell us about chunks.
Yes, okay. So the chunks we're about to teach you are really, I think what is tripping students up, right?
We have high level students that are using too incorrectly.
And I think it's because of these chunks.
Sometimes we use these specific chunks to express praise, too good, too cool, too fun, and too funny are the ones I hear the most commonly.
And we usually use them at the end of like a conversation or something that's been said to express praise.
Have you heard these, Lindsay?
Yeah, of course. So it's really important to know, we're really turning the episode now and moving to a totally different use where again, it is okay to use the two.
But again, as Aubrey said, it's placed in a different part of the conversation as kind of a commentary.
Exactly. Like someone has described something that's happened.
Oh, too cool, too fun.
Exactly, right? A commentary, that's a good way to put it because this is a totally different meaning than where you're saying like, I'm too excited about this.
I'm too passionate that it doesn't make sense.
This is where it makes sense because you're saying that someone's story was awesome.
It's kind of a way of saying awesome, very cool.
And we use these chunks.
Exactly, so what are they again?
What are these chunks that we hear, Aubrey?
So, too good, too cool, too fun, and too funny.
Those are the ones I use and hear the most.
Okay, yeah, I hear too funny a lot, right?
I mean, I hear them all, but I think too funny is definitely the one that feels most common to me.
Yeah, I hear that the most.
So we're gonna do too many role plays here where you can see how we use these to sort of express praise or to just say that something is awesome.
And just notice where these fall in the conversation, right?
So here we go. I'll start us out.
We took our kids to Disneyland last week.
Oh, wow, I bet that was awesome.
It was a really fun trip.
We were there from open to close and even stayed for the fireworks.
Too fun. All right, so where did it fall, Aubrey?
At the end, right? It's another way of saying awesome or that sounds awesome, right?
You're sort of expressing praise just about the story in general.
And so the meaning is not, you're not saying that's too fun to mean like there was too much fun had.
It's idiomatic. It's an idiomatic chunk.
That's not what it means.
Yeah, and we have other options, of course, for an episode for another day.
How do other ways to express this, right?
You could say something like, I love that or love that.
You know, a lot of ways that we do this, right?
Oh, so cool. That sounds awesome.
There are a million ways you could say this, but this is one of them that I think might be causing this problem for students, where we're sort of making the use of two a little more complicated.
Okay, let's see it again.
And we'll see how it falls at the end again.
Here we go. All right, you wanna start us?
So then he fell right in front of me.
What? That's crazy.
I know it was nuts.
Oh man, too funny. Yeah.
So you're commenting on my story, right?
And what I really mean is that's really funny, but we'll use to be like too funny.
Yeah. It's weird. It's almost like sarcasm a little bit.
It's interesting. Yeah.
I mean, you might be saying it's too funny for me.
It might still be the same meaning.
Like it's too funny for me, you know?
Wow, that's so funny that it's almost too funny.
That I can't handle it.
Right, exactly. But it's just a completely different use, right?
So we really wanna separate part one and part two of this episode.
Yeah, we're sort of going into like how we do use to the common mistake that we see.
And then we wanted to share these chunks to make sure you see, like if you're like, but I have heard too fun, too good, too cool.
Why? That's confusing, right?
So now you can see these are sort of used as a response.
And they really just mean like that's awesome.
Or that's really fun.
Yeah, don't over -complicate it, right?
That it's very simple.
Or you can come up with other things.
Like we said, I love that or amazing, awesome, cool.
There's so much we could say.
The important thing is to say something.
We don't wanna just have the person stop and there's no response on the other end, right?
Exactly, right? We do need something.
It creates awkwardness or discomfort.
If it's just silence, they finish the, oh, I know it was nuts, silence.
Silence, yeah. This is one of the things we say to just fill the silence, to say like, oh, cool story.
Right, Michelle and I did an episode on crickets and that would be a great use of this cricket.
Totally, right? We don't want crickets.
So there are lots of things that we can say after someone has shared something fun or interesting or funny.
And these chunks are one of the things that we say.
You got it. I mean, I think that is the takeaways.
Is there anything else we need our listeners to know today?
I don't think so. I mean, other than hit follow because whenever we notice these mistakes, we want to point them out.
So you guys, most of our students, my friends that say this, they don't realize they're doing it until I point it out, right?
It's such a subtle thing, really moving up into C1 level of fluency.
Yes. So be sure to hit follow to get these details.
All right, sounds great, Aubrey.
I'll see you on the next episode.
Have a good day. You too.
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