「〜すぎる」と「〜まくる」はどう違いますか。


**question:** Is there a difference in feeling for the words? Like すぎる feels
more negative with an emphasis on disagreement with the action taken, while
まくる is more about the amount?

**Examples I came across:**

> 食べすぎる  
> 食べまくる  
>  
> ゲームをやりすぎる  
> ゲームをやりまくる

Both pairs can be translated as ‘eating too much’ and ‘binge-playing games’
respectively (in my understanding).

**Steps taken already:**  
I tried looking it up on jisho.org , but all I got was:

> まくる: (2) to do over and over again; to do relentlessly; to do with reckless
> abandon​
>
> * * *
>
> すぎる: to be too much, to be excessive

I also looked it up in my monolingual dictionary app and got this:

> まくる:〔動詞のあとについて〕︿しきりに＼さかんに﹀する。「書き—」
>
> * * *
>
> すぎる:〔動詞・形容詞のあとについて〕  
> ①度をこす。「言い—・長—・しずか—・常識が無さ—・知らな—」  
> ②〔俗〕〔ほめて〕ひじょうに…だ。「かっこよ—・すご—・美人—」  
> ▽〔形容詞「ない」に続くときは語幹に「さ」をつける。「関心が なさ—」〕

These definitions seem different enough to not warrant much confusion. But
I’ve seen まくる used as ‘too much’ also.

**

## sources:

** [the jisho entry on
まくる](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%BE%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8B)  
[the jisho-entry on すぎる](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%99%E3%81%8E%E3%82%8B)  
[the monolingual dictionary I used
(iOS)](https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/%E4%B8%89%E7%9C%81%E5%A0%82%E5%9B%BD%E8%AA%9E%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8-%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%83%E7%89%88-%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8F%E3%82%A2%E3%83%97%E3%83%AA/id821306606?l=en&mt=8)




-すぎる is always negative. It means doing something _overly_ or _too much_. Note that -すぎる does not necessarily mean the amount itself is large. For example, taking 2 pills a day can be 薬の飲みすぎ.

-まくる by itself is "(very) much", not "too much". It's a neutral expression that can be used both in negative and positive contexts.

