Grammar › Degree › 〜すぎる

Grammar · too much

〜すぎる

"Too much." Bolt すぎる onto a verb or an adjective and it says the action or quality went past what's right — more than you wanted.

The short version

すぎる (literally "to exceed") is itself a verb, and it clips onto three bases: a verb stem (食たべすぎる), an い-adjective with the い dropped (暑あつすぎる), or a な-adjective stem (静しずかすぎる). Its own stem, すぎ, works as a noun — "overdoing it".

食たべる → 食たべすぎる — eat too much · verb stem
暑あつい → 暑あつすぎる ／ 静しずか → 静しずかすぎる — drop い · な-stem

On a verb — did it too much

Take the verb's ます-stem and add すぎる. The matching noun すぎ (食べすぎ, "overeating") is everywhere in everyday talk.

That's overeating. (食べる → 食べすぎ, the noun form)
▶ Nihongo con Teppei 波! · #14 · 0:45 — hear it →

On an adjective — too … for comfort

Drop the final い of an い-adjective and add すぎる. It marks a quality that's overshot — too hot, too expensive, too good.

Too early. (早い → 早すぎる)
▶ Nihongo con Teppei · #1558 田舎日記③ · 0:46 — hear it →
Way too delicious. (おいしい → おいしすぎる)
▶ やさしい日本語じかん · #28 夏祭り · 19:48 — hear it →

Since すぎる is a verb, it conjugates

すぎる behaves like any ichidan (る) verb — past 〜すぎた, negative 〜すぎない, and te-form 〜すぎて ("it was too …, so…").

It's too hot, so… (すぎる → te-form すぎて, giving the reason)
▶ Nihongo con Teppei · #1563 田舎日記⑧ · 4:44 — hear it →

Watch out

🗣 すぎ as pure hype. Casually 〜すぎ (no る) becomes an intensifier that isn't really a complaint at all — 可愛かわいすぎ ("too cute!!"), やばすぎ ("insanely good"). It's the Japanese "way too ___", used as a compliment.
Two irregulars. いい ("good") uses its old stem: 良よすぎる (not ×いいすぎる). And ない ("not") becomes なさすぎる. Otherwise すぎる is regular — it just adds "and that's a problem" on top of whatever it attaches to.
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