Can the qualifiers "very" and "too" be expressed unambiguously in Japanese?


I've noticed that some of my Japanese friends with fluent but imperfect
English often say "too _adjective_ " when a native English speaker would say
just "very _adjective_ ".

(I am asking about "too" in the sense "too big", not as in "me too")

Does this reveal that English makes a distinguish that Japanese doesn't make
or one which Japanese speakers would find too subtle?

How would I unambiguously express each in Japanese?




Not only "too [big]" and "very [big]", but I have also very often heard "so
[big]" added to the mix of confusion by semi-conversational Japanese (not sure
it's related, but it sure sounds like it).

A potential lead for an explanation might be in the nuance of 「〜すぎ」in
Japanese: it is generally more neutral than "too ~" in English. In fact, it is
often **colloquially** used as a synonym for "very ~" (when used with a
positive adjective):

美味しすぎ！ → This is _really_ good! (with positive, not negative, nuance) [col.]

When quizzed about that, Japanese coworkers agreed that, in their mind, there
wasn't such a strong difference between "too ~"/"so ~"/"very ~"... possibly
because of the softer divide between 「〜すぎ」 and 「とても」. I doubt there is a
stronger grammatical explanation for this (but would love to hear if there
is).




Not only "too [big]" and "very [big]", but I have also very often heard "so
[big]" added to the mix of confusion by semi-conversational Japanese (not sure
it's related, but it sure sounds like it).

A potential lead for an explanation might be in the nuance of 「〜すぎ」in
Japanese: it is generally more neutral than "too ~" in English. In fact, it is
often **colloquially** used as a synonym for "very ~" (when used with a
positive adjective):

美味しすぎ！ → This is _really_ good! (with positive, not negative, nuance) [col.]

When quizzed about that, Japanese coworkers agreed that, in their mind, there
wasn't such a strong difference between "too ~"/"so ~"/"very ~"... possibly
because of the softer divide between 「〜すぎ」 and 「とても」. I doubt there is a
stronger grammatical explanation for this (but would love to hear if there
is).

