Three to's

[Fedor]

To, Too, Two -- a Test for You

What is wrong with this sentence:

There are three to's in the English language.

Apologies for obvious simplicity of the question, still I am curiuos...

[Tdol]

The problem is that 'to' is being used for the words that sound like it, but aren't spelled that way. Some might object to the use of the apostrophe to make the word plural, but 'tos' would look very strange.

[Fedor]

Thank you.
So, the sentence seems to be OK, nothing wrong with it?

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Fedor

Thank you.
So, the sentence seems to be OK, nothing wrong with it?

If the sentence is spoken, as tdol notes, it's fine, but if it's written, it doesn't make sense. The reason being, the English language doesn't have three words spelled to. They are pronounced [tu:].

(i) two [tu:]
(ii) too [tu:]
(iii) to [tu:]

Moreover, there are only two, not three to's in the English langauge:

(iiia) the infinitive marker to;e.g., to walk to the store
(iiib) the preposition to; e.g., to walk to the store.

All in all, the English language has five [tu:]'s:

1. two
2. 2
3. too
4. to (infinitive)
5. to (preposition)

[Fedor]

Well now it's fully clear, thanks a lot. But still I am going to ask my American friend, who sent me that test, what was the actual answer he meant ...

[Tdol]

Let us know if it's something different.