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  • Hi. This is Rebecca. In today's lesson, I'll explain the difference between two commonly

  • used words and two commonly confused words. They are: "very" and "too". So what is the

  • difference between these? Well, first of all, both of them are used for in... To intensify

  • the meaning of words, usually adjectives, but they are very different.

  • Let's look at some examples and you'll understand. So the word "very" is used to mean extremely,

  • a lot. But it's extremely... It's when something is extremely something, but manageable. The

  • word "too" indicates extremely, a lot, but something is not acceptable, or not manageable,

  • or over the limit. All right? I'll explain and you'll understand when I give you some sentences.

  • So, for example, I could say: "Oh, this food is very spicy", but I'm still eating it. Okay?

  • Or: "This food is very spicy, but I like it like that." So that's okay. Or you might say:

  • "This food is too spicy. I can't eat it." So here, it was over the limit, it was not

  • acceptable.

  • Let's take another example. "The exam was very difficult." Okay? "But I think I'll pass."

  • Okay? Or: "The exam was too difficult. I'm not sure I'm going to pass." All right? So

  • you see again, too much, over the limit.

  • "I'm very tired. I'm going to bed." Sorry, I wanted to give you a different example there.

  • "I'm very tired, but let's go out anyway." Or: "I'm too tired. I'm going to bed." All

  • right? So there, it was too much so the person was not going to go out. But here, they were

  • saying they're very tired, but it's manageable.

  • Next: "It's very cold out, but I'm going to go out anyway.", "It's too cold. Let's stay

  • at home." See the difference?

  • Next one: "She's very short." It's just a fact. Or: "She's too short to be on the basketball

  • team," for example. All right? Which is what happened to me when I was in school. Wasn't

  • very good at basketball. All right?

  • So I hope you understand, through these examples, the difference between "very" and "too". Both

  • are used to intensify the word we are talking about, but in a completely different way.

  • So now see if you can decide which of these to use.

  • So suppose I want to say that a particular movie is so violent that I can't watch it,

  • I don't want to watch it. So would I say: "It's very violent", or would I say: "It's

  • too violent"? I would probably say: "It's too violent. I don't want to watch it."

  • Okay, suppose you want to indicate that some jewelry is extremely valuable. So what could

  • you say? "It's very valuable." All right?

  • Next: suppose you want to say that the hotel room is so dirty that you will not stay there,

  • you want the management to give you another hotel room. So then you would say: "Our room

  • is... This room is too dirty. Please give us another room." Okay?

  • Suppose you want to say that it's so slippery outside that you're afraid to go out, you're

  • not going to go out. So you say: "It's too slippery." Right?

  • Next: suppose you want to indicate that a suitcase is so heavy that you can't lift it.

  • Would you say: "It's very heavy", or "It's too heavy"? Well, if you say "very heavy",

  • you're still saying it's heavy, that's true, but because we want to indicate that it's

  • over the limit heavy, it's so heavy that you can't pick it up - we're going to say: "It's

  • too heavy. I can't lift it. I need some help."

  • Last one, if you want to say that something is extremely expensive, you would just say:

  • "It's very expensive." But if you want to say that it costs so much money that you can't

  • afford to buy it, then you have to say: "It's too expensive." All right?

  • So I hope this lesson helped you to understand the difference between these two very commonly

  • confused words. If you want to do a quiz on this, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

  • You could also subscribe to my YouTube channel for more English lessons. Thanks for watching,

  • and good luck with your English.

Hi. This is Rebecca. In today's lesson, I'll explain the difference between two commonly

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