Daughter’s friend at Junior College is presenting an “Entertainment Speech” about a girl who loved Gummy Bears a lot. She ate so many Gummy Bears she became one.
The girl wanted to end her speech saying…
This goes to show you, you can’t have too much of a good thing.
The teacher vetoed that and changed the line to…
You can have too much of a good thing, causing her to ask my daughter to call home and see what I think…
I thought about it and agree with the teacher.
You indeed CAN overindulge and have to much of a good thing.
And the story and actions should convey it nicely.
One friend, a native Taiwanese English Teacher disagrees focussing, I guess on the permissions level.
You can’t have too much of a good thing or… Will happen.
Your take…
Whatever… There can be no additional sentences. Just whether can or can’t is most appropriate.
My thought is, if turning into a gummy bear was a good thing for the girl, then “You can’t have too much of a good thing” seems appropriate. However, if turning into a gummy bear is seen as negative, then the opposite would be true, “You can have too much of a good thing.”
Get the kid to place emphasis on can. " Which just goes to show, you CAN have too much of a good thing."
Alternatively, have her do the speech dressed as a gummy bear. That would be funny.
can has two definitions :
"be able to" or "be permitted to"
if you wan’t to go with the first one (it’s possible to have too much) then she should use “can”
if she wants to go with the second one (she really shouldn’t have too much)she should use “can’t”
however, the definition of “permit” is to “officially allow someone to do something”
Now regarding the case of this paper, the moral of the story doesn’t sound very official… to use ‘can’t’ sounds a bit immature / informal for a public speech.
my vote is on ‘can’
unless of course she’s talking to a tin can. then she should add some pauses.
“You, can, have too much of a good thing.”
In the contect given, can seems better. from the stanpoint of greed and poor health are negatives.