TOO adjective + prepositional phrase – English Grammar Profiler
When used before an adjective or adverb, the adverb ‘TOO‘ usually has a negative meaning. In other words, something is more than what is wanted or needed.
Here is an A1 example where TOO premodifies the adjective OLD:
He was too old.
More specific information can be added after this with a prepositional phrase. Here’s an A2 TLC SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE:
He was too old for that.
female Russia B1
This post will also look at prepositional phrases after adjectives without too. This point is so general that it will also include superlative adjectives, for example:
The Venice International Film Festival
is one of the most famous in the world.
TLC student: female Italy B1
A search on iWeb for:
too _JJ _I * *
*There are some errors in the tagging with ‘to’
1 TOO BIG OF A DEAL 657 = very idiomatic so this is at least B2
Maybe I‘m making too big of a deal about it.
listen
2 TOO LATE FOR ME TO 654 = dummy ‘it’ with a great deal of modification B2
It’s too late for me to just sit down
and laugh with her over a cup of tea.
listen
3 TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT. 490
4 TOO BIG FOR ME. 466
But, mine was way too big for me,
and my brother,
he couldn’t ride his anyway.
listen
5 TOO HARD ON YOURSELF. 398
6 TOO WORRIED ABOUT IT. 392
I‘m not too worried about it.
listen
7 TOO LATE FOR YOU TO 390 8 TOO LATE FOR THAT. 382 9 TOO CLOSE TO CALL. 374 10 TOO LATE FOR THEM TO 334 11 TOO HAPPY ABOUT IT. 309 12 TOO SMALL FOR ME. 292 13 TOO HARD FOR ME TO 258 14 TOO LATE FOR HIM TO 246 15 TOO HOT IN THE SUMMER 243 16 TOO KEEN ON THE IDEA 239 17 TOO EXPENSIVE FOR ME. 236 18 TOO SWEET FOR ME. 232 19 TOO BIG FOR ME TO 226 20 TOO SMALL FOR ME TO 225 21 TOO EXPENSIVE FOR ME TO 221 22 TOO HEAVY FOR ME TO 220 23 TOO HIGH FOR ME. 217 24 TOO LATE FOR US TO 214 25 TOO STRONG FOR ME. 213 26 TOO BIG FOR ME, 212 27 TOO DIFFICULT FOR ME TO 212 28 TOO BIG FOR HIM. 211 29 TOO LATE FOR ME. 211 30 TOO BIG OF AN ISSUE 201 31 TOO EXPENSIVE FOR WHAT IT 197 32 TOO HIGH FOR ME TO 197
33 TOO EXPENSIVE FOR THE AVERAGE 196
34 TOO CLOSE TO CALL, 193 to-infinitive
35 TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT, 191 36 TOO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER 189 37 TOO DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO 184 38 TOO SWEET FOR MY TASTE 183 39 TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO 177 40 TOO BIG OF A PROBLEM 176 41 TOO LATE FOR THAT, 170 42 TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD 168 43 TOO EASY FOR THEM TO 166 44 TOO LOW TO THE GROUND 163 45 TOO CLOSE TO THE EDGE 162 46 TOO LATE IN THE DAY 158 47 TOO EASY FOR PEOPLE TO 157 48 TOO DARK FOR ME. 154 49 TOO EASY FOR ME TO 150
50 TOO LATE FOR YOU. 149
adjective + preposition + article + noun
_JJ _I _A _N
1 OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 29940
2 AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC 17774
3 AVAILABLE ON THE MARKET 14807 A2
4 AVAILABLE IN A VARIETY 12903 5 RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER 10425 6 HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS 9349 7 AVAILABLE IN THE MARKET 9172 8 FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH 8026 9 AVAILABLE AT THE TIME 8008 10 AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET 7924 11 BIG OF A DEAL 7217 12 AWARE OF THE FACT 7102 13 BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE 6900 14 OLD AT THE TIME 6896 15 INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS 6547 16 AVAILABLE IN A RANGE 6431 17 PLEASED WITH THE RESULTS 6407 18 WELL ON YOUR WAY 6090 19 HAPPY WITH THE WAY 5801 20 RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT 5791 21 DEAD AT THE SCENE 5621 22 SIMILAR TO THE WAY 5553 23 INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT 5468 24 INVOLVED IN THE DEVELOPMENT 5466 25 RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT 5361 26 ONLY TO THE EXTENT 5298 27 LARGEST IN THE WORLD 5069 28 AVAILABLE ON THE WEB 4936 29 RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE 4726
30 AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE 4713
adjective + preposition + noun
_JJ _I _N
1 FREE OF CHARGE 88305 2 AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE 39105 3 BEST OF LUCK 34352 4 AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD 23646 5 AVAILABLE FOR USE 17638 6 AVAILABLE FOR SALE 15875 7 SUITABLE FOR USE 14898 8 HARD AT WORK 14555 9 AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS 13387 10 AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST 12415 11 IDEAL FOR USE 10480
12 FULL OF PEOPLE 10472 (EGP example)
13 TRUE TO SIZE 10461 A2
14 USED TO MEASURE 10139 15 READY FOR USE 9302 16 OPEN FOR BUSINESS 9085 17 FIT FOR PURPOSE 8807 18 AVAILABLE ON REQUEST 8722 19 FULL OF LIFE 8202 20 FULL OF ENERGY 8034 21 FULL OF WATER 7733 22 BEST OF TIMES 7678 23 HIGH IN PROTEIN 6934 24 AVAILABLE FOR STUDENTS 6835 25 EASIER FOR PEOPLE 6740 26 AVAILABLE AT HTTP 6449 27 SHORT ON TIME 6185 28 RIGHT IN FRONT 6012 29 LOW IN CALORIES 5944
30 RICH IN VITAMIN 5899
A2 vocabulary:
accident, around, available, blood, call, corner, dead, download, fact, fit, free, front, full, further, heavy, high, idea, largest, low, luck, market, middle, pleased, rich, sale, size, strong, true,
variety, way, web, yourself
Before I leave this post about ‘adjective +preposition‘, I want to say something about a point someone asked: They asked “What is ‘adjective of object’?
I thought maybe they mean when “the head of the phrase is a predicative adjective.”
For example “it was nice of you to ask” which means:
- You asked. This ‘action’ was nice.
- Asking me is a nice thing to do.
- Thanks for asking!
Then I showed them this list: ‘adjective + OF + pronoun‘: which contains “nice of you”
1 AWARE OF IT 20398 2 PROUD OF IT 10008
3 PROUD OF YOU 9333
4 BEST OF THEM 8346
5 TIRED OF IT 6766
They were tired of the boring game.
6 AWARE OF THEM 5762 7 PROUD OF HIM 5502 8 BEST OF IT 4934 9 SICK OF IT 4767 10 PROUD OF THEM 4461 11 PROUD OF MYSELF 4295 12 FULL OF THEM 4023 13 BEST OF US 3774 14 PROUD OF HER 3688 15 WORST OF IT 3669 16 SURE OF IT 3328 17 SHORT OF IT 3201 18 FULL OF IT 2909 19 BEST OF ME 2876 20 THICK OF IT 2816 21 AFRAID OF IT 2744 22 PROUD OF ME 2709 23 INDEPENDENT OF EACH 2667 24 BEST OF EVERYTHING 2444 25 AFRAID OF THEM 2312 26 PROUD OF YOURSELF 2270
27 NICE OF YOU 2259
28 AFRAID OF HIM 2212 29 BEST OF YOU 2142 30 BETTER OF ME 2078 31 UNAWARE OF IT 1956 32 AWARE OF WHO 1885 33 BETTER OF HIM 1873 34 ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES 1680 35 CONSCIOUS OF IT 1654 36 PROUD OF WHO 1564 37 GUILTY OF IT 1560 38 TIRED OF THEM 1414 39 BEST OF HIM 1407 40 ASHAMED OF IT 1398 41 FOND OF IT 1398 42 CAPABLE OF IT 1270 43 BORED OF IT 1268 44 BETTER OF YOU 1265 45 AWARE OF EVERYTHING 1231 46 ASHAMED OF YOURSELF 1135 47 SCARED OF IT 1127 48 AFRAID OF YOU 1078 49 SUPPORTIVE OF ME 1038 50 SICK OF THEM 1027 51 AFRAID OF ANYTHING 1025 52 JEALOUS OF YOU 1020 53 INDEPENDENT OF ONE 997 54 AFRAID OF ME 978 55 PROUD OF THEMSELVES 978 56 WORST OF THEM 949
57 WORTHY OF IT 947
But only fifteen percent of them will get a job that they feel worthy of their talent.
listen
58 SUPPORTIVE OF EACH 922 59 SCARED OF THEM 916 60 AWARE OF ANYTHING 906 61 CAPABLE OF ANYTHING 891 62 ASHAMED OF MYSELF 883 63 PROUD OF HIMSELF 878 64 SCARED OF HIM 867 65 FULL OF HIMSELF 837 66 FOND OF THEM 829 67 BETTER OF THEM 809 68 NICE OF THEM 775 69 AFRAID OF SOMETHING 743 70 FOND OF HIM 741 71 AWARE OF SOMETHING 738 72 FREE OF IT 731 73 TIRED OF ME 710 74 FULL OF THEMSELVES 696 75 SWEET OF YOU 660 76 ASHAMED OF HIMSELF 649 77 AWARE OF ANYONE 631 78 PROUD OF EVERYTHING 612 79 GREATEST OF THEM 602 80 PROUD OF US 600 81 FULL OF EVERYTHING 593 82 AWARE OF EACH 592 83 AWARE OF YOU 578 84 PROUD OF HERSELF 578 85 SURE OF HIMSELF 568 86 BETTER OF US 564 87 AWARE OF HIM 562 88 BETTER OF IT 559 89 GLAD OF IT 546 90 CERTAIN OF IT 542 91 WRONG OF ME 542 92 GOOD OF YOU 540 93 AFRAID OF HER 532 94 GENEROUS OF YOU 532 95 BIGGEST OF THEM 528 96 GUILTY OF ANYTHING 527 97 TIRED OF YOU 527 98 JEALOUS OF HIM 526 99 TIRED OF HIM 520
100 NICE OF HIM 515
Here’s an advanced example of an adjective followed by a prepositional phrase:
We are not privy to the details of other projects.
listen