Why fully effective Business English courses Go Beyond Grammar
In our globalised world, English is the most commonly used shared language, and becoming fluent is often seen as hugely important if you want to travel, work or…
Learning English Grammar the easy way – “Too”, “To” and “Two”
This article is the first in a series that aim to correct common English grammar mistakes.
English grammar is among the most complicated of all languages, and most of us get things wrong. Even as a native speaker who’s speaking fluent English for almost 20 years now I still put the apostrophe in the wrong place, and admittedly rely just a little bit too much on the autocorrect on my mobile phone. Which just goes to show how confusing English grammar can be because I work in an English language school. So it’s probably a good thing for me to write this out, that way I can tell you all which mistakes you are making while reminding myself of the basics too. Trying to learn English grammar isn’t hard to do if you know the tricks!
So this is the first common Grammar mistake I am going to put right, and seeing as I’ve already used it twice, I’m going to start with “Too” (not to be confused with “To” or “Two”). All three of these words sound exactly the same in speaking, they are called homophones (words that sound the same, any good English course will teach you that!), which is probably why a lot of us forget which ones to use when we are writing. So for clarity’s sake:
“Two” is the same as 2, “two” is a number. For example –
“I have done two English courses” = correct.
“I have done to English courses” = incorrect
“To” is used in the infinitive form of a verb, like “to run”. “To” can also mean “towards”. For example –
“I like to run to school” = correct.
“I like too run two school” = incorrect
“Too” is used when you are saying “also” or “as well”. For example –
“He lives in England too” = correct.
“He lives in England to” = incorrect.
Connor FitzPatrick is the newest addition to the English Language Centre Brighton and has worked within English language schools since graduating from university. One of his many jobs is ensuring all grammar and language is correct and accurate across ELC’s websites and all its social streams.
