yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

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


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

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.

More Articles

View All
Black Holes, Blazars, and Women of Color in Science | Nat Geo Live
JEDIDAH ISLER: Studying science changed me and it allows me to make contributions into the world. And everyone, regardless of their identity, should have that right. We cannot get to the best possible exploration, whether it’s on this planet or beyond, if…
American attitudes about government and politics | US government and civics | Khan Academy
What we’re going to do in this video is think about how the core beliefs of U.S. citizens impact their views on the role of government. What I’m going to do is talk about a few core beliefs that are often associated with the United States. But take it wit…
Touching Plasma PhD Research Opportunities at UAH - Smarter Every Day 193
Hey, it’s me Destin! Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. Here’s the deal: um, I’m in a super weird place in life right now. I’ve got four kids. I’m an engineer. I’ve got this YouTube thing, I give talks, but my channel name is Smarter Every Day. I’ve been …
1997 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (Full Version)
[Applause] Foreign. I’m Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. As you probably have gathered by now, I had a real problem last night; I was losing my voice almost entirely. I don’t want you to think I lost it cheering for myself this morning …
The Difference Between Mass and Weight
steps What is the difference between mass and weight? I think it’s something that a lot of people are confused about. They just think that anything that’s big, like this car, has a lot of weight; it’s very heavy, it’s got a lot of mass, and people just ba…
How to Brute Force your way to $1 Million
Let’s get something out of the way: $1 million is not what it used to be. Yeah, it’s not going to be enough to live a lavish lifestyle for the rest of your life, but it will definitely make your life exponentially better than it is right now. Here’s somet…