Real ESL

Are you too pretty or too intelligent? You’d better hope you are NOT too pretty or too intelligent. It’s much better to be so intelligent or very pretty. In this video lesson, I explain the difference between too + an adjective and so/very + an adjective. See the transcript below if you can’t understand.

Hello,
This is Kim Purcell at RealESL.com and today I’m in Beverly Hills. There is a good old garbage truck – oh no – it’s a fire truck. Yep. And this is Beverly Hills. It’s not as fancy as what a lot of you see in the movies. Yes, there are parts of Beverly Hills that are not that fancy. So, what we’re going to talk about is using too, so or very + (plus) an adjective.

When do you use them? When do you use too + an adjective and when do you use so or very?

Let me give you an example: She is too pretty. How is that different from ‘She is so pretty’ or ‘She is very pretty’? Now … ‘She is so pretty’ or ‘She is very pretty’ … that just means ‘a lot’. You know, her level of attractiveness (attractiveness – being attractive/pretty/good-looking) is high. That’s all. Now, ‘She is too pretty’ means you don’t like it, it’s, her … she’s so pretty that something’s bad about it. Okay? So, maybe it’s just that for you, (it’s just that … = the point is that…,) you don’t like women that are so attractive (attractive = good-looking). You would rather have someone who is not so pretty. So, you say, “She’s too pretty. I don’t want to go out with her.” For example. It just depends on your purpose. But when you add too + the adjective, it makes it bad.

“He is too tall.” Maybe you’re a short person and you don’t want a friend who’s really tall.

Another example is “He is too intelligent.” Now, how is it possible to be too intelligent? Intelligent is a good thing, right? Well, if someone is too intelligent, perhaps he’s hard to talk to. Maybe he only talks about intellectual things and you want to talk about beer and baseball or football or soccer or maybe you want to talk about going out last night and meeting a hot chick. (a hot chick = a good-looking woman) He’s not a real good friend for that because he wants to talk about quantum physics. So, he’s too intelligent. You don’t want to hang out with him. (to hang out with s.o. = to spend time with s.o.)

[Note from Kim: It would be more common to say 'He's too intellectual' than 'He's too intelligent' because someone can be intelligent without constantly talking about academic subjects, whereas an intellectual tends to be mostly interested in academic subjects. However, the example still works because for some people, someone might be too intelligent, which then makes the person less attractive as a friend or mate.]

Let’s see. (Let’s see = Let me think, let me give you an example) She is too rich. Maybe you don’t like having a friend who is… who has so much money. Maybe you don’t have much money and you don’t want to hang out with someone who has money and they’re always spending it and you feel poor.

Uh – he’s too poor. Now poor is more of a negative adjective. It doesn’t have to be, but generally it is. So, ‘He’s too poor’ just means, okay, a little poor, maybe that’s okay, I don’t mind, but this guy is so poor that it’s bad for me. Okay?

So, ‘too’ always makes that adjective something that’s bad, even if that adjective is normally a good thing, that quality is normally a good thing. Alright, give it a try, think of some adjective or quality in a person that’s good usually and then add ‘too’ to it to think of what would make it suddenly bad. Okay? Now, find something that’s a little bit bad, but you don’t mind it, but if it’s too extreme, (extreme = having too much or a lot of something, being on one end of the spectrum) if that quality is too much, you wouldn’t like it. Like, let’s say, (like, let’s say = for example) a hairy back, well, some women don’t like men with hairy backs, but a little bit of hair, not so bad, it’s okay. But if the guy has, you know, a forest back there, you might say, “He’s too hairy.” Or, “His back is too hairy.”

Okay, you got it? (You got it? = Do you understand?)

Now, you think of a few examples of your own. Okay, go for it. (Go for it = Try it)

I’m Kim Purcell, at RealESL.com.