too | so + much – English Grammar Profiler
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 51 in the category of DETERMINERS/quantity is defined as:
‘SO MUCH’, ‘TOO MUCH’ WITH UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
In the English Vocabulary Profile:
too much/so much = A2 a large amount of something, often more than you want
There is no vocabulary or grammar point which uses these phrases with quite a common following TO-infinitve. The complexity we guess after considering the above points is at least B2. It is similar to the explanation that we give here.
My wife and son were here in the States just driving down the road,
and some fella who‘d had too much to drink
plowed right into them.
Into the Wild
A search in the iWeb corpus for:
too|so much _NN1
1 SO MUCH FUN 51051 2 SO MUCH MONEY 13915 3 TOO MUCH MONEY 12901 4 TOO MUCH TROUBLE 10270 5 TOO MUCH WORK 9680
6 TOO MUCH PRESSURE 8394
7 TOO MUCH INFORMATION 8108
PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE:
The movie’s trailer, doing a good job by not giving out too much information,
did not appeal to my taste at first.
Chinese, Level 5, Grammar Class.
8 TOO MUCH WATER 7879 9 SO MUCH INFORMATION 7132 10 TOO MUCH ATTENTION 5713 11 TOO MUCH POWER 5665 12 SO MUCH PAIN 5629 13 TOO MUCH WEIGHT 5280 14 TOO MUCH SPACE 5247 15 SO MUCH WORK 4796 16 TOO MUCH EFFORT 4615 17 TOO MUCH DETAIL 4594 18 SO MUCH ATTENTION 4533 19 SO MUCH TROUBLE 4465 20 TOO MUCH FUN 4404 21 TOO MUCH SUGAR 4347 22 SO MUCH LOVE 4319 23 SO MUCH ENERGY 4285 24 SO MUCH POTENTIAL 3816 25 SO MUCH STUFF 3468 26 TOO MUCH EMPHASIS 3447 27 SO MUCH SENSE 3411 28 SO MUCH EFFORT 3407 29 TOO MUCH STRESS 3395 30 SO MUCH JOY 3214 31 TOO MUCH HEAT 3145 32 SO MUCH POWER 3111 33 TOO MUCH ALCOHOL 3056 34 TOO MUCH STUFF 2986 35 SO MUCH PRESSURE 2951 36 TOO MUCH DAMAGE 2768 37 TOO MUCH SALT 2566 38 SO MUCH SPACE 2544 39 TOO MUCH NOISE 2485 40 TOO MUCH FOOD 2450 41 TOO MUCH ENERGY 2418 42 TOO MUCH CREDIT 2225 43 TOO MUCH ROOM 2223 44 TOO MUCH OIL 2138 45 TOO MUCH SUN 2080 46 SO MUCH WEIGHT 2073 47 SO MUCH HISTORY 1998 48 SO MUCH ROOM 1919 49 SO MUCH WATER 1871 50 TOO MUCH AIR 1849 51 TOO MUCH HASSLE 1783 52 TOO MUCH DEBT 1772 53 TOO MUCH LIGHT 1770 54 TOO MUCH FAT 1710 55 SO MUCH SUPPORT 1691 56 TOO MUCH MOISTURE 1666 57 SO MUCH SUCCESS 1657 58 SO MUCH DAMAGE 1611 59 TOO MUCH RISK 1602 60 TOO MUCH CAFFEINE 1595 61 SO MUCH RESPECT 1562 62 TOO MUCH PROTEIN 1554 63 SO MUCH TALENT 1539 64 SO MUCH INTEREST 1500 65 SO MUCH EMPHASIS 1493 66 SO MUCH VALUE 1484 67 TOO MUCH FORCE 1449 68 SO MUCH FOOD 1401 69 SO MUCH DETAIL 1395 70 SO MUCH NOISE 1390 71 TOO MUCH PAIN 1354 72 TOO MUCH COFFEE 1333 73 SO MUCH CHOICE 1295 74 SO MUCH STRESS 1283 75 TOO MUCH SENSE 1273 76 SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE 1243 77 TOO MUCH THOUGHT 1223 78 TOO MUCH DIFFICULTY 1195 79 TOO MUCH FOCUS 1167 80 SO MUCH COMPETITION 1148 81 SO MUCH CONFIDENCE 1137 82 SO MUCH CONTENT 1119 83 TOO MUCH INFO 1049 84 TOO MUCH VITAMIN 1048 85 TOO MUCH FUEL 1036 86 TOO MUCH STOCK 1022 87 SO MUCH VARIETY 981 88 SO MUCH FLAVOR 977 89 SO MUCH INSPIRATION 974 90 TOO MUCH MATERIAL 959 91 SO MUCH BLOOD 955 92 TOO MUCH SODIUM 954 93 SO MUCH BEAUTY 952 94 TOO MUCH CONTROL 941 95 SO MUCH HOPE 894 96 SO MUCH MATERIAL 894 97 TOO MUCH LIQUID 893 98 TOO MUCH EXPOSURE 889 99 TOO MUCH CALCIUM 885
100 SO MUCH EXCITEMENT 875
A2:
air, alcohol, blood, competition, detail, history, hope, information, oil, pain, so, space, variety
B1:
attention, beauty, choice, control, credit, damage, difficulty, effort, energy, excitement, fuel, heat, interest,
knowledge, liquid, material, power, respect, sense, stress, stuff, success, support, talent, trouble, value, weight
TLC SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE:
There was too much commotion on the platform
and that’s where I must have lost my purse.
Female, India, B1
EXPERT EXAMPLES:
Huang says current practice puts too much stress on written tests of grammatical rules.
topics.amcham.com.tw
Europeans have so much passion for the sport that I think goes unnoticed by many.
americanfootballinternational.com
*Our grammar is hidden under more complex grammar in these examples.