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In German we only have the word "auch" and I wonder that there are two words in English for this: "too" and "also".

Here are some examples:

Peter got a brown hat. He also has blue shoes.
Peter is a nice guy. I am also a nice guy.

"Also" is exchangeable with "too":

Peter got a brown hat. He has blue shoes too.
Peter is a nice guy. I am a nice guy too.

Is there any example where "also" is not replaceable by "too"? (Or vice-versa)

Or do these two word have the exact same meaning?

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  • When too means excessive - too much - it can't be replaced by also.
    – Ronald Sole
    Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 20:22

1 Answer 1

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The two words are not always identical.

In informal speech, "also" can introduce an afterthought or an entirely new topic, but "too" cannot.

  1. Mark is such a jerk and I'm glad he's out of my life. Also, he sometimes does this weird thing with his nose.
  2. Thanks for dinner. Also, have you seen my keys?

In sentence 1, "also" introduces an afterthought, possibly comical. If we replaced it with "too", "he sometimes does this weird thing with his nose" would be part of the list of problems on top of him being a jerk, rather than an afterthought.

In sentence 1, "also" starts a whole new conversation. It would make no sense at all to replace it with "too".

There may be others. I can't think of any functions of "too" that "also" doesn't share.

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