Too many more or so many more?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

I’d like some help on that please. Which one is correct and why.

“There were so many more cars on the street yesterday”

“There were too many more cars on the street yesterday”

Thanks!

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2

“So many more” is the better choice.

In everyday English, people would probably say:
There were a lot more cars on the street yesterday.

I think both or your sentences are grammatically correct, but the second sentence is awkward. You would almost never have a reason to use it.

“So many” emphasizes “many”.
“Too many” implies that there are more than there should be.

So Many

  1. 10 cars
  2. 15 cars
  3. 100 cars

Option 3 is so many more cars than options 1 or 2. There is a very large difference.

Too Many

There is room for 10 cars to park. If 12 cars try to park, that is too many cars.

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3

Oh, I guess it’s like:

1 - “The coffee is so hot”
2 - “The coffee is too hot”

In 1 I can drink it, but not in 2 cause it’s beyond drinkable temperature.

Thank you for your help.

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4

In so many more cars, you feel that the number of cars is more than expected.
But in too many more cars, you feel that the number of the cars was irritably high!

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5

Thank you, Anglophile.

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6

Correct.

Note the the words ‘so’ and ‘too’ can be used with either countable or non-countable numbers, amounts or quantities.

So many cars
Too many cars

So much heat
Too much heat

So much anger
Too much anger

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