Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: too.

too. Part A: Beginning Sentences with. It is poor style to begin a sentence with “too” (= also), although there is a tendency in facile journalism to use the word this way. Instead of *”Too, we shouldn’t forget,” write “Also, we shouldn’t forget” or, better, “And we shouldn’t forget.” Words such as “moreover,” “further,” and “furthermore” are also serviceable in this position. Part B: For “very.” This informal use of “too” almost always occurs in negative constructions {it’s not too common}. But there are exceptions {you’re too kind}. Part C: Too [+ adj.] a [+ n.]. This idiom being perfectly acceptable, there is no reason to insist on the artificiality of “a too [+ adj. + n.]”; that is, “too good a job” is better than *”a too good job.” E.g.: “But Monica is too nice a person for that kind of behavior.” Dale Robertson, “For Seles, What Could Have Been Radiates in Hingis,” Houston Chron., 6 June 1997, at 1. *Invariably inferior form. For information about the Language-Change Index click here. ——————– Quotation of the Day: “A strict and succinct style is that, where you can take away nothing without losse, and that losse to be manifest.” Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries (1641), in Classics in Composition 43, 55 (Donald E. Hayden ed., 1969).
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