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:
More specific information can be added after this with a prepositional phrase. Here’s an A2 TLC SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE:
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.
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.
3 TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT. 490
4 TOO BIG FOR ME. 466
But, mine was way too big for me,
5 TOO HARD ON YOURSELF. 398
6 TOO WORRIED ABOUT IT. 392
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
Programming Insider4 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.”
- 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.
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: