The Missing O

Saving English One Word At A Time.


An English tutoring column by Ralph Schatzki who would like you to join him in the task of saving the language, step-by-step, word-by-word, one person at a time.

The Missing O - Often neglected letter in writing. Why is that? Here's the columnist of -Saving English One Word At A Time- Ralph Schatzki's two cents on the topic.

The Missing O

Or, the Ironic "That's To Much"

The letter "o" looks like the number zero, but that doesn't mean it's worth nothing. We read "books," while "bok" is the first half of a Chinese vegetable. If your wife is about to have a baby boy, you might say that you will "soon" have a "son," but not the other way around!

Of course, these are mistakes that are only made through carelessness, or due to a sticky "o" key on the keyboard. It's not often that one would see these mistakes. Yet there is one instance where a poor (not "por") "o" is often left out in people's writing through neglect, and that is when they use- or try to use- the word "too."

There are three ways to spell this homonym:

"two," (meaning 2, of course),

"to," (which has several meanings, chiefly to show direction toward a point and as the beginning of the infinitive form of a verb, but there are many others),

and "too," (meaning "also," or an excessive amount).

Almost everyone knows these words, yet so many people drop an "o" when using the word, "too."

Is this laziness? Forgetfulness? The problem, I believe, lies in the facts that "to" and "too" are homonyms, that in dropping the "extra" letter one still has a real word, and especially that the "o" is repeated in "too," so it seems easier to drop than if it were a different letter.

Whatever the reason, though, please be careful and spell "too" properly when you use it. Your readers will thank you, at least in their heads.

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