〜すぎる: Too Much | Japanese Grammar

すぎる is a real verb — 過ぎる, "to exceed, to pass beyond" — and when you glue it onto an adjective or verb you get exactly that meaning: the quality or action goes past the acceptable line. 高すぎる isn't merely "very expensive"; it's "too expensive — beyond what I'll pay." This is the crucial difference from English intensifiers. English "very" and "too" are two separate words with two different tones; Japanese とても ("very") is neutral praise-or-blame, but 〜すぎる almost always carries a whiff of complaint — something has overshot and that's a problem. Two things make this page click: get the attachment right (drop 〜い, drop な, use the verb stem), and remember that すぎる, being a genuine verb, conjugates like one.

い-adjectives: drop 〜い, add すぎる

Take the adjective, remove the final 〜い, and add すぎる. What remains — 高, 大き, 難し — is the adjective's stem.

この服は高すぎる。ちょっと無理。

kono fuku wa takasugiru. chotto muri

These clothes are too expensive. Kind of out of the question.

この部屋、私には大きすぎるかな。

kono heya, watashi ni wa ōkisugiru kana

This room's maybe too big for me.

この本は子どもには難しすぎると思う。

kono hon wa kodomo ni wa muzukashisugiru to omou

I think this book is too hard for children.

な-adjectives: drop な, add すぎる

na-adjectives work the same way — you strip the な (or, since these words are stems already, just add すぎる to the bare word) and attach すぎる.

あの人はまじめすぎて、たまに疲れる。

ano hito wa majime sugite, tama ni tsukareru

That person is too serious — it's tiring sometimes.

この町は静かすぎて、夜はちょっと寂しい。

kono machi wa shizuka sugite, yoru wa chotto sabishii

This town is too quiet — it gets a bit lonely at night.

このアプリ、便利すぎてもう手放せない。

kono apuri, benri sugite mō tebanasenai

This app is so convenient I can't live without it anymore.

That last example shows a real-world softening: with a positive word like 便利, 〜すぎる can flip into playful, exaggerated praise — "convenient to a fault," "ridiculously convenient." The core sense is still "past the normal line," but here overshooting is a good thing. Treat this as the friendly exception; the default remains "too much = problem."

Verbs: 連用形 (stem) + すぎる

すぎる also attaches to verbs, and this is where it earns its keep. Take the verb's ます-stem (the 連用形 — the form you'd use before ます) and add すぎる. 食べる → 食べ → 食べすぎる "overeat"; 飲む → 飲み → 飲みすぎる "drink too much." For how to build that stem for every verb class, see the ます-stem.

昨日は食べすぎて、お腹が痛い。

kinō wa tabesugite, onaka ga itai

I overate yesterday and my stomach hurts.

ゆうべ飲みすぎて、今日は頭が痛い。

yūbe nomisugite, kyō wa atama ga itai

I drank too much last night, and today I have a headache.

スマホを見すぎると、目が悪くなるよ。

sumaho o misugiru to, me ga waruku naru yo

If you look at your phone too much, your eyesight will get worse.

The two irregulars: よすぎる and なさすぎる

Two forms don't follow the plain "drop 〜い" rule and simply have to be memorized.

いい ("good") → よすぎる. As everywhere, いい switches to the よ- stem for derived forms (never ×いすぎる). よすぎる means "too good / too nice."
ない ("not / not existing") → なさすぎる. ない inserts さ before すぎる, giving なさすぎる "too little / far too few / lacking to a fault." The same さ appears with a few short adjectives in this construction. (You'll also meet it in the "seem" form 〜なさそう.)

この話、うますぎて逆に怪しい。

kono hanashi, umasugite gyaku ni ayashii

This deal is too good — which actually makes it suspicious.

彼はやる気がなさすぎる。

kare wa yaruki ga nasasugiru

He's got far too little motivation.

💡

いい never appears as いい- in derived forms — it always becomes よ-. So it's よすぎる, よくなる, よさそう. Bank this once and it pays off across the whole grammar.

The point everyone misses: すぎる is a verb

Because すぎる (過ぎる) is a genuine ichidan (ru-) verb, everything built on it is a verb, no matter that the base was an adjective. 高すぎる is grammatically a verb, so it conjugates like 食べる / 見る:

Form	たかすぎる	Meaning
Non-past	高すぎる	is too expensive
Past	高すぎた	was too expensive
Te-form	高すぎて	too expensive, and… / so…
Negative	高すぎない	not too expensive
Polite	高すぎます	is too expensive (polite)

This matters constantly, because the te-form 〜すぎて is one of the most useful things you can build with it: "so [too] X that [consequence]." 食べすぎて、お腹が痛い — "overate, so my stomach hurts." The negative 〜すぎない shows up in advice: 無理しすぎないでね "don't push yourself too hard."

無理をしすぎないで、たまには休んでね。

muri o shisuginai de, tama ni wa yasunde ne

Don't overdo it — rest once in a while, okay?

昨日は寝すぎて、逆に体がだるい。

kinō wa nesugite, gyaku ni karada ga darui

I slept too much yesterday, and now my body feels sluggish instead.

The noun 〜すぎ: "an overdoing of…"

Because すぎる is a verb, it has a ます-stem of its own — すぎ — and that stem works as a noun meaning "excess / overdoing." So the verb 飲みすぎる ("drink too much") has a matching noun 飲みすぎ ("overdrinking"), and 食べすぎる gives 食べすぎ ("overeating"). You'll see these constantly on health posters and in casual complaints. This is the same stem-becomes-noun move you meet with ordinary verbs (帰る → 帰り "the way home"), applied to the すぎる compound.

最近、食べすぎと運動不足で太ってきた。

saikin, tabesugi to undō busoku de futotte kita

Lately I've been putting on weight from overeating and lack of exercise.

働きすぎは体によくないよ。

hatarakisugi wa karada ni yoku nai yo

Overworking isn't good for your body.

Common Mistakes

1. Keeping the 〜い of an い-adjective. You must drop it; the stem alone takes すぎる.

❌ この服は高いすぎる。

Incorrect — 〜い not dropped before すぎる.

✅ この服は高すぎる。

kono fuku wa takasugiru

These clothes are too expensive.

2. Keeping the な of a na-adjective. な also drops; use the bare stem.

❌ この町は静かなすぎる。

Incorrect — な not dropped before すぎる.

✅ この町は静かすぎる。

kono machi wa shizukasugiru

This town is too quiet.

3. Forgetting that すぎる conjugates — using an adjective past tense. The past is 高すぎた (verb), never ×高すぎかった (which treats it like an い-adjective).

❌ 昨日は食べすぎかった。

Incorrect — すぎる is a verb, so it can't take the adjective past 〜かった.

✅ 昨日は食べすぎた。

kinō wa tabesugita

I overate yesterday.

4. Using the dictionary verb instead of the stem. For verbs, すぎる joins the ます-stem, not the full dictionary form.

❌ お酒を飲むすぎた。

Incorrect — dictionary form 飲む where the stem 飲み is needed.

✅ お酒を飲みすぎた。

osake o nomisugita

I drank too much sake.

5. Treating 〜すぎる as neutral 'very'. It carries a "too much, and that's a problem" nuance. For plain, neutral emphasis, use とても or すごく instead.

❌ このケーキ、おいしすぎるから毎日食べたい。（ただの称賛のつもり）

Odd if meant as neutral praise — 〜すぎる implies excess/problem.

✅ このケーキ、とてもおいしいから毎日食べたい。

kono kēki, totemo oishii kara mainichi tabetai

This cake is very tasty, so I want it every day.

(That said — おいしすぎる is said all the time as gushing, exaggerated praise. The line between "problematic excess" and "so good it's almost a problem" is a matter of tone, and native speakers exploit it constantly.)

Key Takeaways

Attachment: い-adjective drops 〜い, na-adjective drops な, verb uses the ます-stem — then add すぎる.
すぎる is an ichidan verb ("to exceed"), so 〜すぎる compounds conjugate as verbs: 高すぎた, 高すぎて, 高すぎない — never the adjective 〜かった.
Irregulars: いい → よすぎる; ない → なさすぎる.
Nuance: 〜すぎる means "too much" with a built-in note of complaint — the quality has overshot. It is not a neutral "very" (that's とても / すごく), though with positive words it can flip into exaggerated praise.
The te-form 〜すぎて ("so [too] X that…") is its most useful everyday shape.

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