It was too bright to look at directly.

[keannu]

My grammar book says "bright" is described by both "too" and "to look at directly". I have two ways of interpreting this structure. One is a backward way that "to look at directly" describes a noun, and the other is a natural, foward way that in "too bright "not to be able" to look at directly", where "to" itself contains "not". Do native speakers interprete backward or forward?

gr68)It was too bright to look at directly.

 

[5jj]

Native speakers do not consciously 'interpret' straightforward sentences. If they hear that utterance, they just know that 'it' was so bright that it was not possible for a person to look directly at it.