Adjectives: LATE vs. TOO LATE

Something is late if it happens after it is expected to happen. By contrast, something is too late if it happens after it is needed for a particular purpose.

For example, if Jill's flight was scheduled to arrive at 8:45 and her plane landed at any time after this, then you could say:

• Jill's plane arrived late. [later than it was expected to arrive]

If Jill needed to catch a train from the airport at 9:15, and the late arrival of her plane made this impossible, you could also say:

• Jill's plane arrived too late to catch the 9:15 train. [later than needed for the purpose of catching that particular train]

Whether something happens too late will depend on which purpose is being discussed:

• Jill's plane arrived too late to catch the 9:15 train, but not too late to catch the 9:45 train.

Only use too late if you are directly discussing a particular purpose, or when a particular purpose is implied. If you arrive at a meeting after it has begun, you are simply late. If you said you arrived too late for a meeting, native English speakers would probably think you meant that you had arrived after it had ended (i.e., the purpose of attending the meeting was not achieved).


OTHER ADJECTIVES:
Too behaves the same way when used with other adjectives:

• The coffee was too hot (to drink). [hotter than desired for the purpose of drinking]
• Jill was refused entry to the cathedral because her skirt was too short. [shorter than allowed for the purpose of entering the cathedral]
• The soldier was too young to vote, but not too young to serve in the military. [younger than allowed for one purpose, but not the other]
• Jill works too hard. [harder than desired, presumably for her happiness or health, depending on context]

Causatives: REMIND means cause to REMEMBER

Many languages have only a single word that covers the meanings of remember and remind so speakers of these languages often have trouble knowing when to use each in English and produce errors like the following:

• INCORRECT: Remember me to buy some bread on the way home.
• CORRECT: Remind me to buy some bread on the way home.

The relationship between these two verbs is the same as that between the verbs kill and die. Just as the verb kill means cause to die, the verb remind means cause to remember. Here are some examples:

• That smell reminds me of our holiday in Tuscany.
  [The smell caused me to remember the holiday]
• I had forgotten about the bread until Jill reminded me.
  [Jill caused me to remember the bread]

• I remember it snowed more when I was a kid.
  [No mention of something causing the memory to be recalled]

ADVANCED:

Prepositions: OVER vs. ABOVE

Native speakers of English usually find it very difficult to explain the difference between the prepositions over and above, but nevertheless have very clear intuitions about when each should be used. Today's post will be getting into some detail about the factors driving these intuitions. The system is quite beautiful in its logic and very revealing about semantic structure.

Weirdness with plurals

The grammatical distinction between singular and plural does not map perfectly onto the meanings one and more than one.

One way to check whether a noun phrase is singular or plural is by seeing whether it triggers singular or plural agreement with a verb when it appears as the subject of a sentence:

• Singular: This monkey likes bananas. [and not This monkey like...]
• Plural: These monkeys like bananas. [and not These monkeys likes...]

Another way, also illustrated in the above examples, is by looking at whether a singular or plural determiner is used (in these examples, the determiner this is singular and the determiner these is plural), though with a determiner like the, the form doesn't change, and there are a few cases where the determiner appears to be singular, but plural agreement is triggered:

• Plural: A few/dozen/hundred/million monkeys like bananas.

Adverbially adjectival: GOOD vs. WELL

Many adjectives have an adverbial form produced by adding an -ly ending:

• quick → quickly
• accidental → accidentally
• local → locally
• recent → recently
• frequent → frequently
• happy → happily [replace -y with -ily]

Other adjectives have an irregular adverbial form:

• good → well [instead of goodly]
• early → early [adjective already ends in -ly]

Modern theories of grammar include adverbial forms of adjectives within the class of adjectives much as singular and plural nouns are included within the class of nouns. The reason is because they share most of the behaviour of the adjectives they are derived from. For example, gradable adjectives and adverbs both behave the same way in comparisons:

Prepositions and time: FOR vs. SINCE

Use for to introduce durations like 1 second, 3.8 billion years, a long time and a little while.

Life on Earth has existed for about 3.8 billion years.
I listened to a Lady Gaga song for a little while.

Since is used to introduce the point in time when something became true and must always be used with a form of the perfective have.

I have lived on Earth since 1975.
I have been listening to Lady Gaga since 3 o'clock.

Some common mistakes involving since:

WRONG: I have lived here since 30 years. [You can't use a duration with since]
WRONG: I am living here since 1981. [You must use since with a form of have]

See the tag prepositions for related posts.

A conversation at noon

Tenses and aspect are among the most difficult things to learn in any language, so I've made a pretty chart to simplify the whole thing. It includes an example of a conversation that includes each form at least once.

Click to enlarge!

UPDATE:
It helps if you look at which time phrases you can use with each form (left side of the chart). For example:

The race started at 10am. [the simple past]
The race has started now. [has is present tense, so it is about the past of the present (i.e., a time before now)]
The race had started at 11am. [had is past tense, so it is about the past of the past (i.e., a time before 11am)]

If it is now 12pm, you can't say:

WRONG: The race has started at 10am. [has is present tense, but 10am is in the past, so it doesn't make sense]

If you want to attach a time phrase to start instead of have, use the simple past form.

I DO TOO and I DON'T EITHER

Use too with a positive sentence:

A: I like chocolate.
B: I like chocolate too!

Use either instead of too when the verb is negated:

A: I don't like chocolate.
B: I don't like chocolate either!

A: I've never liked chocolate.
B: I've never liked chocolate either!

Notice that the form of tag questions also depends on verbal negation:

I like chocolate, don't I?
I don't like chocolate, do I?

Uses of the simple present tense

Dynamic verbs
With dynamic verbs (i.e., verbs that describe actions and events), the simple present tense normally has a habitual meaning so can be used with adverbials such as every day and often.

The Sun rises in the east (every day).

To talk about an event that is happening right now, you need to use the progressive -ing form of the verb instead.

The Sun is rising (right now).

Stative verbs
With stative verbs (i.e., verbs that describe states and relations), the simple present tense can't be used with a habitual meaning. Instead, it indicates a state or relation that holds in the present, much as the progressive -ing form is used to indicate the present with dynamic verbs.

I like/love/want/need you.
I come from Berlin.

Stative verbs do not always have a progressive -ing form. When they do, it often forces a dynamic meaning.

WRONG: I am coming from Berlin. [come from in the sense of where a person grew up]
RIGHT: I am coming home (right now). [come in the sense of moving towards]

The place a person comes from is not something that can change, but for states that are changeable such as where a person lives, an -ing form can sometimes be used, particularly when the state is new or likely to change soon:

I live in Berlin. [no comment about how permanent this is]
I am living in Berlin. [suggests that the speaker has moved to Berlin recently or that they might not stay there]

Some other examples of stative verbs are believe, know, agree, appear, seem, contain, include, consist, exist, belong and cost.

Prepositions and time: BY vs. UNTIL

[For German speakers]
The German word bis can be translated into English as either by or until, which makes it hard to know which to use. Here is the answer.

Short version
Use by when talking about an event that occurs at a single point in time like finishing.

I will finish the project by Friday

Use until when talking about an activity or state that continues over a period of time like working (an activity) or being asleep (a state).

I will work until 10pm
I was asleep until the phone rang