To vs Too vs Two

Compare it Versus > Grammar > Difference between To, Too and Two

If you think that two words that sound the same are pretty difficult, then you probably have forgotten about these three words: to, too, and two.

They are all pronounced the same, but they obviously bear different meanings.

Let’s look at these in a bit more detail, comparing their meaning, use and spelling.

To

To takes the form of a preposition. Although it has various meanings, it usually pertains to a direction away from the subject.

It could mean that there is something going towards a location or until that certain location.

For instance, one can say that “I am sending this letter to you”, which implies that the letter will reach someone.

Another example for this would be: “He is going to Paris”.

The preposition “to” could also be used for semantics. An example of the correct usage would be “On a scale of one to 10, I think the movie was an eight.”

Too

Too, on the other hand, takes the form of an adverb. It usually means an additional or additionally. A good example of its correct usage would be this “The light is too bright in my room”. This indicates that the intensity of the light is more than adequate.

As you can see, the only difference in writing to and too is an additional “o”, so it is quite understandable that these are mixed up.

Most of the time, the confusion on paper stems from typographical errors, which seems to be highly plausible anyway.

However, we can’t say the same thing for the third word “two”, which is spelled entirely differently than the first two words.

Two

Two is a number.

Strictly speaking, it is an adjective, a way to describe how many objects there are, as what all numbers do. It can also be used to make an ordinal, ie 2nd.

Examples of the correct usage of the word two are as follows: “I have two cats: one is a girl and one is a boy”, “I can give you my other apple since I have two” or “I have two eyes”.

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