All too

The phrase all too is used in negative situations. It's used before an adjective or adverb and adds emphasis to a negative meaning.
My fantastic business ended all too quickly.

YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast

Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson intros here.



English Phrase: All too

The phrase all too is used in negative situations.

It’s used before an adjective or adverb and emphasizes a negative meaning.


As an example, in my post about rubbernecking, I wrote, “Anyone who commutes to work by car will know that accidents on the highway are all too common.”

Common is an adjective.

When I write that “…accidents on the highway are all too common…” it’s a negative situation because I’m saying that accidents are frequent or very common, and by using all too instead of very, I’m emphasizing that it’s negative.

As another example, let me use the recent Golden Week holiday.

Thanks to the calendar this year, many people enjoyed a nine-day holiday.

I’m sure they enjoyed their time off, and I’m also positive that the days went by all too quickly for many people.

Quickly is an adverb.

Here, I am using all too much to emphasize the negative fact that the Golden Week holiday was over too soon.

Thanks for reading.

Take care and enjoy the beautiful weather before the rainy season comes all too early.


This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).  

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 64.  

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



Posted

in

by