Too Much or To Much – What’s the Difference?

If you want to make sure you have enough pizza for everyone at a party and don’t mind having a little extra, should you order too much or to much pizza?

Pizza is an important part of our lives, and we always need to make sure that we have enough of it to go around. Thus, the difference between too much and to much is vitally important.

What is the Difference Between Too Much and To Much?

In this article, I will compare too much vs. to much. I will outline the correct phrase and use it in several example sentences to demonstrate its proper context.

Plus, I will show you a memory tool that will help you remember whether too much or to much is the correct choice.

When to Use Too Much

too much or to much grammarWhat does too much mean? Too much is a phrase that means excessive or excessively. It can be used as an adjective (I ate too much pizza) or an adverb (She texts too much).

  • The assessment concluded that Obama and his communications team allowed his fifth year to be judged too much by his dealings with Congress, which were poor. –The Washington Post

Here are two more examples of too much as an adjective phrase,

  • Too much work and not enough play make Jack a dull boy.
  • One gallon is too much milk for most people to drink in one sitting.

And here are two more examples of too much used as an adverb phrase,

  • I drank too much last night, and this morning I feel ill.
  • Shelly’s friends often complain that Shelly complains too much.

When to Use To Much

too much or too manyWhat does to much mean? Some writers might slip up and use to much when they really mean too much. These phrases don’t mean the same thing, though.

To and too are homophones, which means that they sound alike when pronounced out loud but have different meanings.

  • Too, for instance, is an adverb that means excessively.
  • To is rarely used as an adverb, and is usually either a preposition or an infinitive marker.

These words have another homophone, two, which is a representation of the number 2, namely, the integer between one and three. See more on to, too, and two here.

As you can see from the chart below, which graphs to much vs. too much over time, the phrase too much food is vastly more popular than to much food.

too much versus to much

Even though this chart isn’t 100 percent exhaustive in its scope (it only looks at books published in English since 1800), it is accurate enough to show that writers nearly universally choose too much over to much. The phrase to much barely even registers a blip on the graph.

That’s not to say that the words to and much should never appear next to each other, however.

For example, the sentence below uses to as a preposition adjacent to the adjective much.

  • When Jason returned home to much the same scene as he had left, he questioned his decision to return at all.

This sentence is grammatically sound, but it is using the words to and much in a different way than the phrase too much.

Trick to Remember the Difference

If you are using this phrase to mean excessive or excessively, you should always choose too much. It is the only correct version of the phrase. To much is an error based on a misinterpretation of the homophones to and too in spoken English.

Since too has an excessive amount of O’s compared to to, you should always be able to remember that too means excessive.

Summary

It is to much or too much? Only one of these spelling is correct. The other is an error.

  • Too much is a phrase that means excessive or excessively.
  • To much is a spelling error.

In short, always choose too much.

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