Automattic / Automattic/harper

"to many/much/few" not flagged when followed by a noun mid-sentence

Open
#3,130 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement harper-core linting
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

**The Error**
The ToTooDegreeWords linter only catches "to many/much/few" at clause end or before punctuation. It misses the common mid-sentence pattern where a noun follows the degree word.

**Examples (2-3):**
1. "I ate to many cookies." → should suggest "too many"
2. "There is to much water in the glass." → should suggest "too much"
3. "There is to little time to finish." → should suggest "too little"

**References**
- Cambridge Dictionary: "too" as degree modifier before many/much/few/little + noun
- Merriam-Webster: "too" used as a function word to indicate excess

**Potential Edge Cases**
When "to" is a preposition: "give to many charities", "connected to many servers", "listen to many podcasts" these are valid and should not be flagged.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start at the ToTooDegreeWords linter named in the issue and locate its related test coverage. Reproduce the three mid-sentence examples and the listed prepositional cases; done means the degree-word errors are flagged before nouns while valid prepositional uses remain unflagged.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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