How to Express "Too [adjective]" in Japanese (Sentence Patterns #7)
Main Points
The word すぎる (sugiru) means "to surpass" or "to exceed." When attached to an adjective, it expresses the idea of "too much." For example, 大きすぎる (おおきすぎる) means "too big."
すぎる conjugates as a class 2 (ichidan) verb.
In Japanese, you can express the idea of "too big/small/slow/expensive/etc." by adding すぎる ("to surpass/exceed") to the adjective in question. The way you do this differs slightly depending on what type of adjective you're dealing with.
い Adjectives
When using this grammatical rule for い-ending adjectives, you need to drop the final い before adding すぎる.
Example
やっぱり、このズボンは私には小さすぎる。
やっぱり、このズボンはわたしにはちいさすぎる。
As I expected, these pants are too small for me.
な Adjectives
For な adjectives, you can just pop すぎる onto the end of the adjective.
Example
ここは静かすぎる。本当に怪しいね。
ここはしずかすぎる。ほんとうにあやしいね。
It's too quiet in here. It's very suspicious, isn't it?
Conjugating すぎる
すぎる is a class 2 (ichidan) verb. As such, its polite form is すぎます, its past informal form is すぎた, and so on. For more on conjugations, check out my verb conjugation series.
Reading Practice
See if you can understand the following sentences. Scroll down for the English translations.
天気はキャンピングには寒すぎた。
この作文は簡単すぎますか。
この魚はすごくおいしいが、高すぎる。
Translations
The weather was too cold for camping.
Is this sentence too simple?
This fish is very delicious, but it's too expensive.