Re: [Lingo] 遅過ぎる

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Sun, Jul 04, 2010 at 09:33:06AM -0700, s smith wrote:
> Hi All.
> 
> I stumbled on 遅過ぎる while looking for something else.  I think it's 
> pronounced 「おそすぎる」, at least that's what the IME takes to create 
> the kanji. 　It doesn't show up in the on-line dictionaries I use as a 
> word but Eijiro recognizes it as meaning "too late".  I know that 「過ぎ 
> る」 can be used as a suffix meaning basically "too much."    But what 
> is going on here?  Is this　「遅い」 minus the 「い」 + 「すぎる」 or 
> what?  Is there a pattern here for い adjectives or is this just a 
> special case?  Would "too beautiful" be 美し過ぎる?  The IME seems happy 
> with that.
> 

Yes, the pattern is similar to other things you do with adjectives.
Of course, my mind's just gone blank as far as as examples.  Ok, in the
same way you'd add a verb suffix to osoi--for example, oso-katta, rather
than osoi-katta, you would drop the i at the end when adding sugiru. 

Ama-sugiru, too sweet, rather than ama-i sugi.  (In casual speech,
nani nani sugi is usually used.)  Too big.  Oki sugi, not oki-i sugi.

(Sorry, ssh'ing into mail in console, so can't do kanji).


-- 
Scott Robbins
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