( too ) wise to go & ( very ) wise to go .

1. he was too wise to go.

2. he was very wise to go.

Well, the two sentences mean basically the opposite thing:

1. He was too wise to go. – implies that he didn’t go, that it would have been a stupid thing for him to go.

2. He was very wise to go. – implies that he did go, and that his going there was a wise thing.

So, the difference is mainly a positive ( very ) / negative ( too ) one.

Wider contexts for the students to understand better:

1. The house was in flames. He was too wise to go in.

2. The job description sounds interesting. He was very wise to go to the interview.

Hope I was able to help! :)

wow! still you re great Sandy!

so you do mean that too has always a negative meaning in it. thnx …

Well, ‘too’ does not have a negative meaning by itself, but only in the context ’too + adjective + to + verb ’.

Basicly, by itself, ‘too’ is a comparative modifier, which shows that the expected quality of something is exceeded.

Right now, I’m a little confused as to how to explain this better… I wish a native speaking English tutor would join this thread and offer their explanation…

so sandy how about talking about gender in english..
1.I heard of a duck ( female ) so what’s the male word .
2. and the female words for the following….

a) boar b) bear c) donkey

You know, it’s funny as I was just creating some animals Flash cards! (for Romanian)

So: the male of a duck is a ‘drake’. :)

I cheated a bit and just found out that a female donkey is called ‘jenny’.

But I’m afraid I’m not sure about the other two… I’ll try my luck though and call a female boar a ‘sow boar’ and a female bear simply a ‘she-bear’.

Waiting for the answers! :) I like these rare words for animals, my favourite is the horse family: horse, stallion, mare, foal, colt, and filly! :)) (I remembered those from the fourth part of Gulliver’s Travels …)

wow! fantastic girl!

One word to be told to you from a 30 year old experience prof… you’ll be a good tutor.

Expect more difficult question girl OK.

Only..

1. only Ali can do the cooking .

2. Ali only can do the cooking.

And ( THE )

1. He goes to scholl .

2. He goes to the school.

3. She goes to hospital .

4. She goes to the hospital .

“One word to be told to you from a 30 year old experience prof… you’ll be a good tutor.” – Thank you, Fikry! It means a lot, you know! :) The funny thing is that I’m not even offering English on the site! (I don’t trust myself to, yet!)

To the questions now…

‘To go to school’ vs. ‘to go to the school’ – ‘the’ denotes a specific school, the building rather than the institution. So:

He goes to school = he is enrolled in the educational system.

He goes to the school = he is neither a teacher nor a student, but has business to attend to at a specific school (maybe he has a meeting with the headmaster or goes to pick up his children)

Same thing with the hospital:

She goes to hospital = she is ill and goes to receive treatment.

She goes to the hospital to visit a sick friend.

About the use of ‘only’, the difference in meaning is determined by the word only reffers to:

Only Ali can do the cooking (‘only’ applies to ’Ali’) = He is the only one entitled to do the cooking.

Ali can only do the cooking (‘only applies to ’can’) = The only thing Ali can do is the cooking.

Hope this is correct! Looking forward to more! :)

Excellent Sandy!

You really want more….
are you interested in literature Sandy… just let me know
I’ll feed you with fantastic questions relating to literature
OK.

Sandy! some londoners say:

1. this place ( restaurant , coffee shop …) is a hole in the wall.

what do you think they mean?

again some people who live in Hastings ( south-east of london always say :

2. be aware of the wolf , you may kick the bucket .

And other south londeners say :

3. this book is all Greek to me .

And….

4. This old man is an annoying creep .

Yes, Fikry, I’m very interested in literature! :)

I’m afraid I don’t know what they mean by ‘a hole in the wall’.

But:

‘to kick the bucket’ = to die

‘creep’ = someone you can’t stand

’it’s all Greek to me’ = I cannot understand it.

I even think I know the history behind the last one: in Medieval times, when the world of Western Europe was still very familiar with Latin but had forgotten Ancient Greek, whenever a Greek quote appeared in a manuscript, the words were ignored, and the reader would replace them, with Graeca sunt, non leguntur (‘It is in Greek, it is not read’).

I think the most fascinating thing about such expressions is to know where they come from… I’m curious how the bucket was associated with death…

a ‘hole in the wall’ in the UK is also known as the cash dispenser machine! :)

Possible explanation about kicking the bucket!

Clicky

“A hole in the wall” is a term or something said to discribe old untidy places Like restaurants and coffee shops.

1. “Don’t eat in that restaurant over there, it is a hole in the wall”

But it is not necessarily serve bad food ..

Right Marco!

Cool… though I think it’s been shortened to simply ‘a hole’ nowadays. That is commonly used here to describe such an establishment! :) I’d never heard of it being in ‘the wall’ so now know where it came from. :)

Fascinating, if somehow dark, explanation for ‘to kick the bucket’. And thanks for the useful link, Marco! :)

Back to “too” – isn’t this another word for “also”. In your example, wouldn’t “to” be the correct form?

Sandra speaks the truth as always. I think I’m going to start a Sandra cult and chant her name and stuff. Everytime I see your posts, Sandra, I find myself nodding.

I agree, Sandra, about kicking the proverbal bucket. Creepy! :)

Sandra – what do you mean, “to” is the correct form? In the “too wise to go” example?