I think I quite understand about “too+adj+to” like:
Anna is too young to drive. (She cannot drive)
But I saw a sentence:
A: My family’s not like yours. We seem to spend all day Saturday fighting about where we’ll go on Sunday.
B: What about your dad? Doesn’t he make the final decision?
A: Certainly not…he’s too busy trying to come up with an excuse why we shouldn’t go anywhere.
B: Oh, doesn’t he like getting out of the city?
I wonder why we can put “trying” after “busy” (adjective) since the structure must be “too+adjective+to”.
Or can we put something else after the adjective in this case?
And what does the sentence above mean exactly? Does it mean “he is too busy and likes or tries to come up with an excuse why we shouldn’t go anywhere” ?
Best Answer
You should read the sentence like this - [He is too busy] [trying to come up with ...]
This is a different construction than "too + adjective + to", and it has the literal meaning.
"He is too busy" = He is extremely busy.
Busy doing what? - trying to come up with an excuse.