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MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH grammar sheet |
VERY, TOO / VERY MUCH, TOO MUCH – Level: 
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- VERY / TOO + adjectives/adverbs
- VERY MUCH / TOO MUCH in other occasions
- Transitive verb + direct object
- TOO MUCH for positive ideas
- VERY MUCH , TOO MUCH / MANY
https://multimedia-english.com/grammar/very-too-very-much-too-much-29
VERY/TOO + adjective/adverb
- That tree is very big
- She sings very beautifully
- That mountain is too high for me
- You speak too fast
But we use VERY/TOO MUCH before comparatives
- He is very much taller than his brother (positive idea)
- This is too much more expensive, I can't buy it (negative idea)
Rest: VERY MUCH / TOO MUCH
(+ noun) I don't have very much money [but "very much" with nouns is not common, see note 2 below]
He drank too much gin tonic at the party
(+ verb) I think you work very much / too much
Remember that we don't normally separate a transitive verb from its direct object, and this is especially true for VERY/TOO MUCH:
- I like your house very much
- I very much like your house
not: I like very much your house (like + your house)
but if VERY MUCH doesn't refer to the verb, but to the object, then it is part of the object and goes before the noun. See the difference:
- He drank too much wine (what did he drink? too much wine) -"too much wine" is the direct object
- I like tennis very much (what do I like? tennis. How much do I like it? very much) - "tennis" is the direct object, "too much" is an adverb.
For more advanced learners
Note 1: VERY MUCH usually expresses a positive idea, TOO MUCH always expresses a negative idea (it is an excess), but in colloquial English (especially American English) you can use TOO MUCH with a positive sense meaning "very very much".
- Oh man, I like this song too much, it's so cool!!
Note 2: VERY MUCH is not common with nouns, and we only use it with negative sentences. TOO MUCH with nouns is always ok
- I drank very much wine (uhm... ok but not recommended)
- I didn't drink very much wine (not common)
- I drank too much wine (OK)
Also, remember the use of MUCH and MANY. We use MUCH with singular nouns and MANY with plural nouns. The same is true for VERY/TOO MUCH/MANY
- There were too many people and they ate too much food
- That's too much for me
- There are too many cars in the street