Is it true that the word "too" is used to express an excess of something negative?

"Too" does usually mean "excessive" so that does have a negative implication - "We got too much food for the party" = "I think some of this food will be wasted, we wasted money on it." The food itself isn't negative, but the excessive amount of food is negative. I can think of meanings where "too" isn't negative, like saying "your dog is too cute!" but in most situations it would be best for a non-native speaker to understand it as negative. If you tried to use "too" to compliment a person, for example - "you're too pretty!" can sound sarcastic and mean depending on context.

Yeah if something is "too" something, that suggests that it has gone over the desireable level. If i said this tea is too strong, i'm not saying that is a good thing and it cant really be interpreted that way. Edit: I've just re-read your question and think i might have slightly misunderstood it. It doesn't have to be something negative. It could be anything, too sweet, too rich, too soft etc. The fact that its too much of that means that it has become a negative, but the adjective its describing in the first place doesnt need to be negative, and often isnt.

Anything excessive isn't good

It’s a bit more nuanced than that. *Too* always means an undesirable excess of something. But you can have “too much of a good thing.” An example of “too good”: someone who’s “too good for this sinful world,” is more *morally* good than the speaker wishes they were. They have such strong moral principles that they fail. I’ve also occasionally heard people say someone is “too good” at something like sex. That is, they have more skill at it than they should, and it makes the other person suspicious. In most contexts, though, you use *very* or *so* with positive words, not *too*. If you said, “She.s too happy her son graduated,” you’re implying that there is something wrong about how happy she was, or even that she might have bad motives.

It typically means something along the lines of “an undesirable excess,” so even when it describes something that’s typically positive it makes it into a negative. Using too before a normally positive word doesn’t simply reverse the meaning though, so you can use it before a word like “good” in some situations. “It’s too good to be true” means “it’s suspicious.” Other situations where someone might say “too good” might be said to be funny or emphatic. “This cake is too good, get it away from me” means “this cake is so good I can’t control myself and will eat it all if no one stops me.” I do see a lot of learners and occasionally younger native speakers use it to mean “a lot” or “very” in a neutral or positive way, and this is wrong and confusing in the vast majority of cases. You wouldn’t say “he plays basketball too much” to indicate “he plays basketball a lot and is therefore the star player on the team,” it would mean “he plays so much basketball that he neglects other aspects of his life.” You wouldn’t say “it’s too warm outside” to indicate “the weather is pleasant, let’s go outside,” it would mean “it’s hot and I’m sweaty.”

Too can also be used in positive ways. “You are too beautiful/pretty” is not negative for example.

>is it true too is used to express an excess Yes. “I had too much ice cream. Now I feel sick.” Or, “It’s too busy at that restaurant. I stopped going there.” >the use of too before “good” is wrong I’m not sure what this means. If you mean “‘too’ is not a substitute for a positive or neutral ‘very’” that’s *usually* correct. Saying, “It’s too crowded in here!” means it’s *overly* crowded, not simply “there is a large crowd here.” But if you mean the *word* “good,” then you’re not quite correct. Something can be “too good to be true,” because in this case the excess of good is turns out to be negative. And you can say, “That cake is too good!” in which case you are framing it verbally *as if* there were an excess of goodness, but really it’s just an exaggerated compliment: the cake is very good. This is why I said “usually” above. “You’re too kind!” can simply mean “Thank you, you’re very kind.” But if someone says, “You’re too kind to people you don’t know,” it would be a caution against excess kindness to strangers. So it depends on context whether *too + positive adjective* is a sincere observation of excess or a mild exaggeration that acts more like “very.” And the location of the word is important, because “too” can simply mean “also.” “It’s crowded in here, too” means “It’s also crowded in here.” Pay attention to commas. “I, too, like cake” means “I also like cake”. Whereas, “I like cake too much” means “I enjoy cake to an excessive degree.”

Too has many uses, and it isn't always about excess or to express anything negative. "I love you too" "Can I come too?" In these examples it just expresses the idea of "also"

Yes, this is exactly right.

"I ain't never had too much fun." --*Bill Kirchen*

“Too” is not necessarily good or bad. As others have pointed out it is often used to indicate an excess of something, which implies something negative, but it has another use, which is to mean “also.” As in “I brought some sandwiches and some drinks, too.”

“You’re too kind” as a counterexample, perhaps? I’m half-awake right now so please correct me if I’m wrong.

Beyond crowded, overly crowded

It is true that 'too' in and of itself has a negative connotation because of its meaning (excessiveness), but it absolutely can be used in a positive manner. Stating it as an absolute rule is not correct. "This food is too bomb" is a clearly positive statement.

It doesn't have to be a negative. It can indicate a repeat of something or to emphasise something. You have got lots of answers and I gave you an answer too.

Be careful of YT videos. As a native speaker who has watched some ESL videos, a lot of them give bad advice. Yes, too can be used negatively but it isn't a negative word. It's similar to so, which can be used in ways like "That's so expensive." So, however, is a neutral word like too. Too is a little more intense than so, meaning something is excessive, so "too crowded" means "excessively crowded" but "too good" means "excessively good", which as long as it's not "too good to be true" is a good thing.

It's used to express that there's an excess of something (good or bad, makes no difference). An excess of anything, even if it's something good, is usually a bad thing, but you can definitely use "too" to express something positive as well. For example, if I say something like: "Oh my god, this is just too fucking awesome!" Then I definitely mean that the something I'm talking about is really good.

I think it just indicates a lot of something and not necessarily always a negative connotation although many times it can be. For example, if I said, "This painting is too beautiful to be left in the garage", I mean nothing negative anywhere; just that it's very pretty to not be enjoyed

Additionally, too can mean also. “I love that song!” “Me too!” “I like this one and that one, too!”

The use of "too good" is for sarcasm. We used to say that at work upon finishing a task: "Stop! It's TOO good. They'll give us a permanent job."

It's not that the adjective has to refer to a bad quality; it's the "too" that *makes* it negative. When you say "This cake is too sweet," it's not because sweetness is inherently bad, it's because too much of it is bad, because too much of *anything* is bad, because that's what "too" means: more than there ought to be, or more than is desirable.

You can negate it making it positive. “It’s not too long”

Yes. This cake is too sweet. This car is too expensive.

People here saying that’s wrong but I tend to agree with the you tuber. It does imply that there is a negative excess in most cases, with the exception of when it is used in place of “also”.  Even the phrase “too good” while I wouldn’t say is wrong, is still just an ironic way of saying something is good (by implying in jest that it’s so good that it’s bad).

I would say no, this is actually not true. It is **often** the case that you would use too to express an excess of something negative but it doesn't have to be negative things. The cases where it is used in a positive way are rare and strange. For example, if you told me a really funny joke and I could say "you are too funny!" That sounds like it is meant to be negative but it isn't.

It is used to express an excess of something. It's not only for an excess of something negative. It just happens to be that the majority of the time when you have an excess of something, it's either neutral or negative. Even when it's normally something positive. It's somewhat context dependant. There's the common phrase "too much of a good thing" meaning that even good things can have downsides when you have too much of it.

"Too" before "good" is not wrong, but as you said, "too" signifies *excess* which itself is something negative. * If you have "a lot of sugar", the cake is simply really sweet but not excessively so, but if you have "too much sugar", the cake is so sweet it is bad, * Likewise, if you throw the ball "far", it has gone a great distance and you can probably get it back, but if you've thrown the ball "too far", you will probably never see it again. What the video is probably referring to is when people use "too good" to just mean "really good". This, however, is a different process in language, where a term with a negative connotation is used to exaggerate something positive. This is a type of [semantic shift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change). You can also see examples of this with words like "wicked" and "bad" in some slang contexts.

In the expression, it means an excess of goodness. "Too good" = very good. Not negative. The expression means that something SEEMS to be VERY good - and therefore it might not really be good at all. For example, if a Playstation 5 is being sold for $300, that's good. If it's being sold for $30, that's too good to be true, so it's probably a scam, or it's broken.