Too many cooks spoil the broth means that when too many people work on the same thing at once, the result suffers. Literally, too many cooks ruin the soup. In conversation, the first half is often enough: It's a case of too many cooks.
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too many cooks spoil the broth; it's a case of too many cooks; too many cooks in the kitchen
- Six people edited the report, and it got worse each time — too many cooks spoil the broth.
- Let's keep the planning team small; it's a case of too many cooks otherwise.
- Everyone in the family had an opinion about the wedding menu: too many cooks in the kitchen.
What changed
First versionToo much cooks spoil the broth, so let's keep the team small.
RevisionToo many cooks spoil the broth, so let's keep the team small.
Cooks are people you can count, so the word you need is many: many cooks, many people. Much goes before things you can't count: much time, much money.
Many hands make light work says the exact opposite: working together makes a job easy. People say it when the task is simple and easy to share: Many hands make light work — let's all help with the dishes. Too many cooks is for when everyone wants to be in charge and they all get in each other's way.
Your turn
Five relatives kept changing the wedding plan, and in the end nobody liked it — ___.
Show the answer
too many cooks spoil the broth — The relatives weren't helping but getting in each other's way, and in the end nobody liked the plan, so too many cooks spoil the broth fits. Many hands make light work praises teamwork, but here teamwork ruined everything.
Describe a project that was spoilt because too many people were involved. Say what the project was and what went wrong.
Our group presentation had six authors who all kept changing the slides, and it ended up confusing — too many cooks spoil the broth.
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