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I am writing an academic paper. I wrote the sentence "A too large dataset is difficult to learn". My colleague told me she felt that it was not a complete sentence, and it is better to change it to "If the dataset is too large, the learning is difficult". I also feel the original sentence seems to be incomplete but from the perspective of grammar, I cannot tell any problems.

Could anyone analyze why my original sentence seems to be incomplete?

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    "Too large a dataset is difficult to learn" is grammatical and idiomatic. "A dataset may be so large that it is difficult to learn" pre-empts debate over what 'too large' is intended to mean (it is probably redundant, "a dataset too large to learn easily is difficult to learn").
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jan 15 at 16:17
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    The biggest issue is that "too large dataset" is missing a determiner, since "dataset" is a count noun.
    – alphabet
    Commented Jan 15 at 16:34
  • "An overly-large dataset" is one way to phrase this. I also agree with "Too large a dataset".
    – Kaia
    Commented Jan 15 at 22:32
  • No agency in difficult to learn. For who? Students? A large book is not harder to read than a small one, page by page.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Jan 15 at 23:56
  • How do you learn a data set? Are data sets taught?
    – Xanne
    Commented Jan 16 at 5:06

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The grammar of "Too adjective" is a little odd.

You can use it as a predicate freely:

This dataset is too large.

Pianos are too heavy to lift.

But it is at least awkward to use it attributively:

? the too large dataset ...

? a too heavy piano ...

? too heavy pianos ...

Many English speakers will avoid expressions like this, and find a different way to say it (such as "a dataset which is too large").

There is a construction (which was referred to in a comment) where you can put "too xxx" before the determiner "a":

too large a dataset

(only "a" is possible here - you can't use "the"). Edwin describes this "grammatical and idiomatic" in his comment: I would describe it as a bit formal.

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    You also see it with of like too ADJ of a NOUN, as in [having] too large of a dataset.
    – tchrist
    Commented Jan 15 at 20:14
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    @tchrist: you do. I regard that as non-standard, and as a mis-perception of the unusual structure too ADJ a NOUN, but I may be out of date.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Jan 15 at 20:23

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