Reword "increasingly too late"?

Question

How should I fix a sentence which says "As X disappears, it is increasingly too late to do Y with X"? The sentence seems awkward to me, but "too late" is an adjective, so is the sentence grammatically correct?

Answer 1

Okay, I have a couple comments for you. I'll address grammar first.

"Too late" is not an adjective; "late" is an adjective, and "too" is an adverb modifying that adjective. "Increasingly" is also an adverb, which, according to your syntax, seems to be modifying "too." While it's true that adverbs can modify other adverbs, I don't see one directly following another very often. That two-adverb sequence might be the source of some of that awkwardness you're sensing. If you think that's the case, I'd suggest you get rid of one of the adverbs.

On a side note, I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about here, but I'm skeptical of the idea that something can be "increasingly too late." I see "too late" as a fixed state; it can be either too late or not too late. If there is a specific point in time where it becomes too late to do something, waiting longer after that point does not make it any more too late--more late perhaps, but not more too late. Does that make any sense?

Finally, I think some of this sentence's awkwardness also comes from the repetition of "X." You could just say "it" the second time.

Answer 2

"too" modifies "late", so, it is an adverb. Nonetheless, the sentence is grammatically correct.