SoCS — Is it To hard Too learn?

It’s Too much! Honestly, I don’t really see why there is a problem with some people learning the difference between “to” and “too.”  I assume it probably happens, but I rarely encounter people who get mixed up about “two.”  But the “to” and “too” error is pervasive. I see it on signs, in stores and restaurants, and even in “professional” documents. Of course it is rampant on social media.

So. For anyone who has trouble remembering, here you go:

“too” – meaning “In addition” or “excessive amounts of…” or “extremely”

Just remember…for this meaning it’s about the number of “o”‘s.  There are always too many “o”‘s.  If you are using it to mean “also” or “in addition” then you also need an extra “o.”

“to” – a preposition indicating a person place or thing that a subject is moving toward, or a place where someone is doing something, or a direction in which someone is going. (actually, “to” is far more complicated to explain than that, but I am not actually a grammarian, just someone who likes to be grammatically correct most of the time 🙂 )

If it isn’t too many, then you only need one “o.”

Simple, right? All that being said, I can see why homophones make life difficult. I’m going to tell on my company a bit here. Because it’s kind of funny. 😀

We have a notepad in the plane that we use to write down services that we need when we land, like if we have passengers who need wheelchairs to help them get to their next gate, or if we need extra water or if we have a child traveling alone who needs to be met and escorted to his parents, stuff like that. Now, if a person needs a wheelchair to get off the plane and into his or her own wheelchair, they call that an “aisle” chair because it is a special chair which fits in the narrow aisles of the aircraft. My company printed thousands and thousands of these notepads which had a checkbox for “isle chairs.” 

 

Once, my captain and I spent an entire flight scratching out the word “isle”  on each page of our notepad and replacing it with names of actual islands. So there were “Maui chairs” and “British Isle” chairs, and “Reunion Island” chairs…Funny, right?  😀  Ah, grammar, how we love thee!

 

This post is part of Linda G Hill’s “Stream of Consciousness Saturday”  — Click and read, click and join in! Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “to/too/two.” Use one, use them all, but most of all, just have fun!