Blast from the Past: Two/Too/To

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

This week, we're taking a look at the differences between Two, Too, and To. green_grrl knocked out this topic back in 2008, and there's not much more to be said, so we'll just do a quick refresher.

Two is a number. It's always a number.

Harry Potter has two best friends: Ron and Hermione.

To help remember that "two", the one with the "w", is a number, remember that "twice" always has a "w"!

In written prose, it's correct to write out the word "two". It's not correct to use the numeral "2" unless your characters are doing actual math.

Too means "excessively". If you're talking about having too much, too many, or too few of something, use "too".

Harry found it too difficult to stay awake in his History of Magic class. It was just too boring.

Too also means "also"; or, rather, "too" means "also", too.

Ginny pouted. "But I want to go along, too!"

green_grrl had a great line in her original post as a reminder of how to remember this spelling: There are too many O's in "too." There is one O, and another O, too.

Finally, to is a preposition. You use "to" in a variety of contexts, so just remember that if you're not talking about more than one and less than three of something, and if it's not "excessively" or "also", then use this one!

"We need to go to the library," Hermione said. "We need to do some research if we're ever going to get anywhere!"

Typos happen to everybody, but if you know how these words are properly used, you'll be able to fix the errors more quickly!