Using the "te" form of Sugiru


I've been mulling over my sentence here and whether it's grammatically
correct:

> 山が見えたら **遠きすぎて** 行きました。  
>  Yama ga mietara tooki sugite ikimashita

I take it to mean "If you see the mountain (if it can be seen), it means
you've gone too far."

My question is whether it's possible to use すぎて (sugite) to mean "[Verb] too
[Adverb]." In this case, "go too far".

**Another example:**

> うるさすぎてしゃべっている。  
>  Urusasugite shabette iru.  
>  (You're chatting too loudly)

For the record, I'm aware that from context alone I can simply say
"Urusasugiru" and the listener can infer that I'm referring to their talking,
therefore omitting the need for another verb, but I still need to know for
times where you need to be specific.

Thank you!




There are possibly three ways to say `[Verb] too [Adverb]`:

  1. [verb (-i)] すぎる 

> 行きすぎる  
>  食べすぎる  
>  笑いすぎる

  2. [adjective] く/に [verb (-i)] すぎる 

> 遅く行きすぎる  
>  早く食べすぎる  
>  急に笑いすぎる

  3. [verb (-u)] のが [adjective] すぎる 

> 行くのが遅すぎる  
>  食べるのが早すぎる  
>  笑うのが急すぎる

If you can paraphrase it simply with "V too much" or "over-V", you always
should choose #1. Choice between #2 and #3 is somewhat subtle, but I think it
depends on how much understandable even if you remove the verb part. For
example, when you see a running man you can either say "He runs too fast!" or
just "He is too fast!"; in this case, #3 (走るのが速すぎる) is more suitable.

So neither of your examples uses the form you suggested:

> If you see the mountain, you've gone too far.  
>  山が見えたら行きすぎです。
>
> You're chatting too loudly.  
>  話し声が大きいです。  
>  (うるさい certainly means "annoyingly loud" but saying this in the face of
> someone would sound like "shut up!")




I would suggest that, while I can see the logic in your thinking, there are a
few things not quite right here.

To express the idea that one has gone too far, it is possible to say ikisugita
いきすぎた. Sugiru すぎる is attached to the verb いく. Sugiru as an auxiliary verb
means that something is done too much or to extremes. Therefore, going too far
is ikisugiru いきすぎる

Tooi とおい, as an adjective, will combine with sugiru すぎる by losing the i:
toosugiru とおすぎる. However, verbs, off the top of my head at least, cannot be
used as an adverb in the way that you have attempted. Instead, toosugiru
とおすぎる, would be used as an adjective to describe a location or object as being
too far away.

Having said that, adjectives such as tooi とおい, chikai ちかい, urusai うるさい, are
used with sugiru すぎる less often that you may imagine. Telling off a child for
being too noisy? Urusai うるさい will suffice (urusasugiru うるさすぎる is unnecessary,
and indeed may imply that a little urusai is okay but they have passed that
and become too urusai). There are also other phrasings such as あまりにもうるさい.

E.g. あまりにもうるさくて、集中できない。 It's/You're so loud that I can't concentrate.

If you want to use the すぎる form of an adjective, then you could say something
like

喋るのがうるさすぎる Your talking is too loud.

