すぎる

Table of Contents

• The Basics
  • Conjugating Verbs and Adjectives to Take 〜すぎる
    • Verbs
    • い adjectives
    • なadjectives
  • Conjugating 〜すぎる
  • 〜なさすぎる for "Not … At All"
• Beyond The Basics
  • 〜すぎ For A Standalone Noun Phrase
    • 〜すぎです vs 〜すぎます
  • 〜ても〜すぎることはない For "It's never too…"

The Basics

すぎる basically means "too much," indicating the degree of something is excessive or considerable. It is actually derived from the verb 過ぎる, which means "to pass." When the kana version すぎる is added to the end of other verbs and adjectives, it indicates that something has passed a desirable (or simply normal) level and there's too much of it. ¹

Let's take a look at a few examples. Imagine you're at an all-you-can-eat restaurant with a pal. The food was delicious, and you ate far too much of it. To say that you "ate too much," you can combine 食べる (to eat) and すぎる, as in 食べすぎる, and turn it into the past tense:

• 食べすぎた。
• I ate too much.

Can you see how it works? Let's go on to the next part of the scenario. After eating so much excellent food, the bill comes to just $20 for the two of you. You're taken aback by how inexpensive it is. To express how you feel about that, you can combine 安い (inexpensive) or お得 (good deal) with すぎる to say:

• 安すぎる！
• It's SO reasonable!

• お得すぎる！
• It's SUCH a good deal!

The English equivalent "too" as in "too much" tends to carry a negative connotation, but すぎる is a bit more neutral — it is commonly used to mean "too much" in a positive sense as well. When すぎる is used in a positive context, it usually means "so much" rather than "too much." We do this in English as well, such as when we see a lovely kitten and exclaim, "Awww she's TOO CUTE!" Japanese just does this a lot more often with すぎる.

Conjugating Verbs and Adjectives to Take 〜すぎる

Verbs

Let's look at how to add 〜すぎる to verbs. To do this, first convert the verb to its stem form, then add すぎる.

For godan verbs (a.k.a. う-verbs), replace the う-ending kana with the い-ending kana to make the stem form. For instance, 買う (to buy) becomes 買い and you add すぎる, as in 買いすぎる (to buy too many). This is a relatively easy example because かう already ends in the vowel う.

But what about verbs that don't end in う? Try writing them down in romaji first. For example, 飲む (to drink) in romaji is nomu. To make the stem form, you simply replace the final "u" with "i." So nomu becomes nomi , or 飲み. Add すぎる to this to create 飲みすぎる (to drink too much). Make sense?

Give it a try with some of the verbs below:

For ichidan verbs (a.k.a. る-verbs), attach すぎる to the stem form. To do this, simply remove the final る, and add すぎる instead. To bring back the first example, you can change 食べる (to eat) into the stem form, replacing the final る with すぎる, as in 食べすぎる. That's it!

Here are some other examples:

Apart from the verb types above, there are the irregular verbs 来る (to come) and する (to do). For these, you can just remember their stem forms are 来 and し respectively. Then, you can add すぎる to form 来（き）すぎる (to come too often/close) or しすぎる (to do too much).

い adjectives

To make い-adjectives take 〜すぎる, you simply remove the final い and add すぎる. So to say the weather is "too hot," you can replace the い of 暑い (hot) with すぎる and say 暑すぎる (too hot). Easy peasy, right?

Here are some other examples:

Note that 良い can be read either as よい or いい, but with every other ending besides 〜い, 良 is always read as よ in standard Japanese. So 良すぎる is pronounced よすぎる, not いすぎる.

なadjectives

For な-adjectives, you can simply add すぎる to the stem (the version without な). For example, to say "too quiet," you can combine 静か (quiet) and すぎる and say 静かすぎる (too quiet). How simple (or, 簡単過ぎる)!

Here are some other examples:

Conjugating 〜すぎる

Since 過ぎる is an ichidan verb, a.k.a. る-verb, 〜すぎる conjugates as an ichidan verb too. Conjugating these verbs is easy — the final る is replaced with a new verb ending. Here is a conjugation example with 食べすぎる (to eat too much).

	Plain	Polite
Present	食べすぎる	食べすぎます
Past	食べすぎた	食べすぎました
Negative	食べすぎない	食べすぎません
Past Negative	食べすぎなかった	食べすぎませんでした

〜なさすぎる for "Not … At All"

すぎる can also be used with the negative form of verbs and adjectives which end with 〜ない. In this case, you replace the final い with さ, and then attach すぎる as in なさすぎる.

For example, suppose you're watching stand-up comedy but don't find it amusing at all. To express how you feel, you can combine すぎる with the negative form of the い-adjective 面白い (funny), which is 面白くない (not funny), and say:

• 面白くなさすぎる！
• It's not funny at all!

Here, by using 〜なさすぎる, you can express how not funny it is, to the extent that it's beyond your regular threshold of not funny. To flatly say "it's not funny at all," you can use the expression 全然〜ない, like:

• 全然面白くない！
• It's not funny at all!

In this case, however, you'd sound like you're objectively describing what stand-up comedy is like from your point of view. Using 〜なさすぎる, on the other hand, carries a more subjective tone and is more expressive and humorous.

Let's take a look at a different scenario. Imagine you have a kid who isn't a vegetable-eater. In this case, you can use the negative form of 食べる, which is 食べない, with すぎる and say:

• うちの子は 野菜（やさい）を食べなさすぎる！
• Our kid doesn't eat vegetables at all!

In this example, it doesn't necessarily mean your kid won't eat vegetables at all. 〜なさすぎる suggests that you have a sort of baseline for not eating enough vegetables, and the amount of vegetables your child doesn't eat goes beyond that threshold. Again, this is a creative and amusing way of expressing how your child eats relatively few vegetables.

Beyond The Basics

〜すぎ For A Standalone Noun Phrase

You know how some verbs can be treated like a noun when they're in stem form? Like the stem form of 遊ぶ (to play) is 遊び, and it is a noun for "(the act of) playing" or "game." Since すぎる is derived from the verb 過ぎる, you can use its stem form 〜すぎ as a noun as well (and it comes in pretty handy!).

Let's use the verb 食べる (to eat) again as an example. When it's combined with すぎる, it becomes 食べすぎる. As a noun, it becomes 食べすぎ and it indicates the act of eating too much.

So if you want to say "eating too much isn't good for your health," you can use 食べすぎ and say:

• 食べすぎは体に良くない。
• Eating too much isn't good for you.

Similarly, 飲みすぎ means "drinking too much," so if you suffer a headache as a result of excessive drinking, you can say:

• 飲みすぎで 頭（あたま）が 痛（いた）い。
• I have a headache from drinking too much.

These 〜すぎ phrases can also describe that someone or something is too much. For example, if you want to say that your brother always eats too much, you can use 食べすぎ and say:

• いつも食べすぎだよ。
• You always eat too much.

〜すぎです vs 〜すぎます

Because 〜すぎ functions as a noun, you can add です to the end to make it polite. For example, if you also want to playfully tell a friendly superior that they overeat, you can replace だ with です to increase the politeness:

• いつも食べすぎですよ。
• You always eat too much.

Then what about 食べすぎます? If you're wondering about when this polite form should be used you have a keen sense of observation. すぎる, as we learned before, is derived from the verb 過ぎる and should conjugate into its ます form to add politeness. So you can totally say:

• いつも食べすぎます。
• I always eat too much.

The nuances of the two, however, differ slightly. That is, 食べすぎ is a noun that refers to a specific state (eating too much), whereas 食べすぎる is a verb that refers to what someone does (eating too much). Hence, you'd use the former when describing someone's certain condition, like "You are always like this," while the latter is more suitable when talking about what someone does, like "I always do this."

However, when 〜すぎる is used after an adjective, such as 暑い, they both mean the same thing as either version can be used to describe the state of someone/something. For example, to describe how hot Japanese summer is, you can say the following:

• 日本の夏は暑すぎ [です・ます]。
• The summer in Japan is too hot.

Again, in this case, the meaning of the two versions is the same. Just keep in mind that the stem-form version 〜すぎです is often regarded as more informal and colloquial than the verb-conjugated version 〜すぎます.

〜ても〜すぎることはない For "It's never too…"

すぎる can also be seen in an idiomatic expression 〜ても〜すぎることはない to mean "it's never too…" For example, if you think you can never be too cautious when driving, you can use this pattern and say:

• 運転中（うんてんちゅう）は、 注意（ちゅうい）しても、しすぎることはない。
• While driving, you can never be too careful.

In this case, the pattern is used to convey "the more careful, the better." Let's look at another example. This time, you're onboarding a new employee and instructing them to respond to client emails as soon as possible. To say that, you can use this pattern and say:

• お 客様（きゃくさま）へのメールの 返信（へんしん）は、どんなに早くても、早すぎることはないですからね。
• It's never too soon to respond to our clients' emails.

Again, the pattern is used to convey "the sooner the better" to responding to clients.

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