Timeline for “I’m too tired to drive”: Why does removing 'too' make this sentence ungrammatical?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
34 events
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| Feb 16, 2020 at 13:19 | comment | added | HeWhoMustBeNamed | @F.E., re your first comment -- specifically 'The infinitival "to drive" is licensed by the adverb "too"' -- Is this a special case (on accout of the construction "too X to Y" being a fixed phrase), or do adverbs (and any other parts of speech?) commonly license various types of complements? I'm asking because I have only heard of verbs and adjectives licensing all types of complements in English. | |
| Dec 16, 2016 at 14:25 | comment | added | CowperKettle | Related: Why does “I was happy to do my homework” work, but “I was tired to do my homework” doesn't? | |
| Dec 29, 2015 at 11:23 | history | edited | CowperKettle |
edited tags
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| May 6, 2015 at 3:39 | answer | added | F.E. | timeline score: 5 | |
| Dec 14, 2014 at 18:43 | history | edited | Ben Kovitz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
removing references to ungrammatical "tired to" sentences; hoping to keep the main question as clear as possible
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| Dec 14, 2014 at 18:38 | history | edited | Damkerng T. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Made the title a little more learner-friendly
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| Dec 14, 2014 at 18:36 | comment | added | Ben Kovitz | @MaulikV I just took the liberty of revising your question to include your point about removing adverbs and de-emphasize everything else. I'll bet that a lot of EFL learners find this baffling. It's hard to even think of how to phrase the question. Hopefully people who've reached similar frustrations will find this page on Google. | |
| Dec 14, 2014 at 18:34 | history | edited | Ben Kovitz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
rewrote to clarify the main question
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| Dec 14, 2014 at 18:11 | history | edited | Ben Kovitz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
new tag: phrasal-adjective; clarified title
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| Dec 12, 2014 at 12:34 | answer | added | Mari-Lou A | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 12, 2014 at 11:08 | comment | added | Jim Reynolds | @Jim And if the driver had just gotten two tires, he'd be two tired to drive? | |
| Dec 12, 2014 at 10:05 | vote | accept | Maulik V | ||
| Dec 12, 2014 at 8:23 | comment | added | Jim | The only sense I can make out of "I am tired to drive" is if the driver has just gotten new tires on his vehicle- his vehicle and by extension, he is now tired and ready to drive. | |
| Dec 12, 2014 at 7:38 | answer | added | Ben Kovitz | timeline score: 25 | |
| Dec 12, 2014 at 5:23 | comment | added | Ben Kovitz | @MaulikV Ah, now I think I understand what you're getting at. I think I'll need more than 600 characters, so I'll post an answer. | |
| Dec 12, 2014 at 4:25 | comment | added | Maulik V | @BenKovitz Sir, I just wondered why simply removing 'too' makes it ungrammatical. Especially when I want to say that I was not very much tired. I just don't want to emphasize by putting too over there. But then it turned out to be ungrammatical. Take any sentence removing adverb does not make it ungrammatical especially in such case. He slowly walked down the street over He walked down the street -I just removed adverb because I don't want to describe it! But in this case, it simply got invalid! :) | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 21:17 | comment | added | cpast | Supporting that reading, he says it in the context "other people think I'm tired even though I'm not; they think I'm putting on an act and pretending I'm not getting old. Sometimes I just tell them I'm tired (even though it's not true) to stop them badgering me about how I shouldn't pretend I don't get tired." | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 21:14 | comment | added | cpast | @F.E. How do you figure? What is the meaning you think it has? It certainly should not have "too" for the meaning shoover mentions; in that reading, "to please them" doesn't attach to "I am tired" at all (the reading is "I tell them I am tired to please them", not "I tell them I am tired to please them"). | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 18:20 | comment | added | F.E. | @shoover Er, no. The word "too" does need to be in there for the sentence to have the intended meaning. | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 18:17 | comment | added | Ben Kovitz | @Maulik V Can you explain more of what you intend the phrase "tired to drive" to mean? | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 18:14 | comment | added | Ben Kovitz | (Native AmE speaker here) When I see the phrase "I am tired to drive", at first it doesn't suggest a meaning to me. After I think about it a little, I think maybe it means "I am tired in order to drive" by analogy with "I am well-rested in order to drive" or "I am on amphetamines in order to drive" or maybe "I am licensed to drive". But of course, you can't get tired in order to drive, unless maybe you want to fall asleep at the wheel. I am able to find a conceivable meaning for "tired to drive", but I have to stretch reasonable semantics very far. | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 16:04 | comment | added | shoover | @F.E.: No, the word "too" does not belong in the 2nd one. From the context, its meaning seems to be Sometimes, I tell them [that] I am tired [, telling them this fiction in order] to please them. | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 16:04 | answer | added | Ilmari Karonen | timeline score: 5 | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 14:40 | answer | added | Nick Jones | timeline score: 13 | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 11:58 | comment | added | DoneWithThis. | Luca DiM's comment really should read "I am tired of losing the championship…" He is not renowned for his English grammar. | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 8:45 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglishLL/status/542963428005253120 | ||
| Dec 11, 2014 at 8:20 | comment | added | F.E. | And for that example, the adverb "too" should be in there, so that it should read: "Sometimes, I tell them I am too tired to please them, though I am actually not." For he is telling his family that he cannot please them because he is too tired to be able to (though he is actually lying when he says that). | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 8:15 | answer | added | Stephie | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 8:12 | comment | added | F.E. | Your 1st link seems to be Indian English, and in it is: I am blessed that I can sleep at any time for any duration of time. . . . My wife keeps telling me someday I will collapse, but I don't feel physically tired. Sometimes, I tell them I am tired to please them, though I am actually not. | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 8:06 | comment | added | F.E. | In your 2nd link is this: Laying out his targets for next year, he said: "To win. I am unhappy because this year we have not got since the beginning a competitive car. I am tired to lose the championship at the last race; it has happened too many times in the last years. "You remember what happened to Felipe in 2008, not 20 years ago, what happened to Fernando last year in Abu Dhabi. . . . So I hope that we can have clear rules and to make a condition to win again the championship now." | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 8:05 | answer | added | CowperKettle | timeline score: 6 | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 7:58 | history | edited | Maulik V | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 393 characters in body
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| Dec 11, 2014 at 7:50 | comment | added | F.E. | The infinitival "to drive" is licensed by the adverb "too". I can be tired or sleepy and still be able to drive. But if the amount of tiredness or amount of sleepiness becomes a lot, i.e. too much, so that I won't be able to drive, then I am too tired or too sleepy to be able to drive. That is, I cannot drive, and the reason why is that I'm too tired or too sleepy. The adverb "too" is necessary to allow the presence of the infinitival "to drive" in that sentence. | |
| Dec 11, 2014 at 7:38 | history | asked | Maulik V | CC BY-SA 3.0 |