Enough and too

Enough and too

A. The position of enough

Enough goes after adjectives and adverbs:

* He didn't get the job because he wasn't experienced enough. (not 'enough experienced')

* You won't pass the examination if you don't work hard enough.

* She shouldn't get married yet. She's not old enough.

The opposite is too. (too hard/too old etc.):

* You never stop working. You work too hard. Enough normally goes before nouns:

* He didn't get the job because he didn't have enough experience. (not 'experience enough')

* I'd like to go away on holiday but I haven't got enough money.

* Some of us had to sit on the floor because there weren't enough chairs.

You can also use enough alone (without a noun):

* I'll lend you some money if you haven't got enough.

The opposite is too much.../too many ...:

* We can't go away on holiday. It costs too much (money).

* There are too many people and not enough chairs.

B. We say enough/too ... for (somebody/something):

* I haven't got enough money for a holiday.

* He wasn't experienced enough for the job.

* This shirt is too big for me. I need a smaller size.

But we usually say enough/too ... to do something (not 'for doing'). So we say:

enough money to buy something, too young to do something etc.

For example:

* I haven't got enough money to go on holiday. (not 'for going')

* He wasn't experienced enough to do the job.

* She's not old enough to get married. or She's too young to get married.

* Let's get a taxi. It's too far to walk home from here.

* There weren't enough chairs for everyone to sit down.

* They spoke too quickly for us to understand.

C. We say:

The food was very hot. We couldn't eat it.

and: The food was so hot that we couldn't eat it.

but: The food was too hot to eat. (without 'it')

Some more examples like this:

* The wallet was too big to put in my pocket. (not 'too big to put it')

* These boxes are too heavy to carry. (not 'too heavy to carry them')

* The water wasn't clean enough to swim in.