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
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.
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.