To, two, and too | Frequently confused words | Usage | Grammar

Hello grammarians! Today we're going to talk about the confusion that happens between these three homophones: these three words that sound exactly the same. The preposition "to," the number "two," and the adverb "too."

Now, these words all sound very similar; in fact, they sound exactly the same. If I were going to write this out phonetically, here's what I would do: that's how you write it in the International Phonetic Alphabet. For every pronunciation, you say that word "to," you say that word "to," you say that word "to." If you were looking this up in a dictionary, that's how you would render this spelling phonetically. That's the sound of those words; they all sound exactly the same.

So what we need to do is come up with a way to keep them all separate. The way I'm going to do that is with the prince of foods: the pizza. Let's just call that a pizza. Now, "to" (t-o) is a preposition, and so that means that it's expressing some kind of relationship in time and space. In this case, we can say one of its many, many meanings is that it means it's moving towards something.

So for example, I am headed to Frank Serrazano's pizzeria! Right? So we can see in context this is intentional; it's in motion, and that's why we'd want to use a preposition: where am I going? To Frank Serrazano's pizzeria!

Next, "two" (t-w-o), also pronounced "to," is a number. It's this thing. So we'd use this mostly as an adjective to describe how many things there are. So I would say, at the pizzeria, I ordered two pizzas and ate them by myself. Right? So when we're talking about the number of things, you want to use "two."

And finally, we have "too" (t-o-o), which is an adverb, and it can either mean an overabundance of something or also "in addition." Let me give you examples for both of those cases.

So example case number one: the excessive amount. I ate too much pizza; I feel awful now! Some of you may take issue with that because you don't believe that there is such a thing as too much pizza. I understand. So that's our excessive amount. That's just, you know, mountains and mountains of pizza—more than one person can or should reasonably eat. That's that definition.

And then there is the "in addition" or "also" meaning. So my sister wanted pizza too, but because of my greed, she did not get any. Sorry, Julie! Well, I made her cry.

So in order to keep these three very similar-sounding words straight, here's what you need to remember: "to" (t-o) is a preposition that means toward something. I am headed to Frank Serrazano's pizzeria. "Two" (t-w-o), the number two, is a number, so you'd say I ordered two pizzas. Finally, "too" (t-o-o), the adverb, means either there's an overabundance—there's too much—or "in addition." My sister wanted pizza too.

So grammarians, I say unto you: remember the pizza! You can learn anything. Dave it out.