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]

Adjectives: BORED vs. BORING

What is the difference in meaning between these two adjectives?

• a boring student
• a bored student

The first says something insulting about the student. If you want to describe a student who would rather be somewhere else, you should use the second.

A student might describe himself as bored and one of his lessons as boring. It is not a coincidence that these look like forms of the verb bore. Consider the following sentence: 

• The lesson bored the student.

If we wanted to focus on the role of the subject or the role of the object, we could rephrase it as one of the following:

• The lesson was boring. [progressive]
• The student was bored. [passive]

The subject (the lesson) of the active sentence can be described as boring and the object (the student) can be described as bored. It is the same when they are used as attributive adjectives:

• The boring lesson
• The bored student

Here are some other verbs that follow the same pattern:

Comparatives: CURIOUSER vs. MORE CURIOUS

With almost no exceptions, comparative adjectives are formed either by adding -er or by using more:

• Jill is smart -> Jill is smarter than Penny.
• Jill is intelligent -> Jill is more intelligent than Penny.

The same pattern occurs with the superlative forms -est and most (Note that if an adjective takes the -er form, it will also take the -est form, and likewise for more and most):

• Jill is the smartest student.
• Jill is the most intelligent student.

Non-native speakers of English often find it difficult to know when to use the -er form and when to use the more form. Unfortunately, there isn't a perfect rule for this, but you can still improve your chances of guessing right with a few simple tips.

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: