Et Tu?

Posted by Scott in Featured, Grammar | 0 comments

This is the first of an as-yet unknown number of posts dealing with common grammatical errors.

A homophone is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but are spelled differently. The word comes from the Greek homo (“same”) and ph?n? (“voice” or “sound”). A homograph (“same writing”) is one of a group of words that share the same spelling but mean different things. A homonym (“same name”) is technically one of a group of words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but mean different things—but the term is often more loosely used to refer to words that are either homophones or homographs.

In the English language there are three homophones pronounced “t??” (IPA “tu?”). They are spelled “two”, “to” and “too”.

Most people seem to know and understand that “two” refers to the numeral 2. But there seems to be too much confusion about the other two…

“To” has two uses:

It can be a preposition (which means it always precedes a noun) that indicates “direction”, as in “Jack went to the store”, or “possession”, as in “The candy belonged to Jack”.

It can also be an infinitive (which precedes a verb), as in “Jack needs to brush his teeth”.

“Too” has two uses too:

It can mean “also”, as in “Jack is going to the store, and Jill is going too“.

It can also indicate “an excess of”, as in “Jack bought too much candy”.

Here’s how to decide which homophone to use:

1. Are you talking about a number? Use “two” (again, most people seem to get this one right most of the time).
2. Can you substitute “also” or “an excess of” for the words? Then you also need an excess of ‘o’s. Use “too”.
3. Neither of the above? Use “to”.

Exercise: Transcribe the sentence from this recording:

The page cannot be found The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try the following: Make sure that the Web site address displayed in the address bar of your browser is spelled and formatted correctly. If you reached this page by clicking a link, contact the Web site administrator to alert them that the link is incorrectly formatted. Click the Back button to try another link. HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found. Internet Information Services (IIS) Technical Information (for support personnel) Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title search for the words HTTP and 404. Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and search for topics titled Web Site Setup, Common Administrative Tasks, and About Custom Error Messages.

Use the mouse to highlight/select the text in the box below to see if you got it right:

Jack had to go to too many stores to find two candies that Jill liked too.

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