cannot... too

It seems that "cannot...too" means differently.
For example, "you cannot be too strict with him" means that you should be strict with him.

What about "I was not able to walk. Fortunately, my electric wheelchair gave me lots of freedom.However, as I became older, I realized I couldn’t be too dependent on my electric wheelchair"?

This sentence seems contradictory to the rule. Should "too" be removed from this sentence?

Thanks!

jasonlulu_2000 said:

It seems that "cannot...too" means differently.
For example, "you cannot be too strict with him" means that you should be strict with him. Not necessarily.
What about "I was not able to walk. Fortunately, my electric wheelchair gave me lots of freedom.However, as I became older, I realized I couldn’t be too dependent on my electric wheelchair"?

This sentence seems contradictory to the rule. Should "too" be removed from this sentence? No, it's fine.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Bhai.

jasonlulu_2000 said:

This sentence seems contradictory to the rule.

Click to expand...

What rule?

Both of your examples have the same meaning for 'too' — 'overly' or 'excessively'.

Rover

Sorry!

I didn't put it clearly.

I learn on the book that if "cannot is followed by too", it just means the opposite.
For example, "You cannot be too careful when crossing a busy road." It means that you had better be careful when it comes to crossing a road.

So that's what I was referring to as a rule.

jasonlulu_2000 said:

So that's what I was referring to as a rule.

Click to expand...

As you see, this is not a good 'rule'. The meaning of 'cannot ...too' depends on context.