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When I was playing a video game a few months ago, I noticed that some of the
characters (mostly young teen females, in case it matters) kept saying `～すぎ`
instead of `～すぎる`.

For example, when one of the characters was being kind of rude, another
character said to them:

> 言いすぎ！ (You're saying too much!)

I think I heard the exact same line from a young adult male in an anime too.

Why was `すぎ` used instead of just `すぎる`? When would it be better to use one or
the other?
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2012-04-27T18:53:58.933
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2012-06-02T01:17:27.017
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word-choice usage meaning verbs
What is the difference between ～すぎ and ～すぎる?
〜すぎ is the noun form of the verb 〜すぎる.

In other words, 〜すぎ would be followed by です, and すぎる would become すぎます, in
です・ます form.

Sometimes these are interchangeable and it just depends if you want a noun or
a verb, but in your example 言いすぎる on its own would not have the same meaning.
You'd have to say something like "言いすぎてるじゃん！".
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2012-04-27T19:00:20.077
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The key difference is that ～すぎる expresses time and ～すぎ does not.

多すぎる will be too many

多すぎた was too many

多すぎ too many

～すぎ is a noun as mentioned by ジョン, however it is also a verb in it's
continuative form. That is to say a verb that is happening at the same time as
the rest of the sentence (now unless otherwise indicated).

Due to that fact 多すぎ is a grammatically complete sentence fragment, but so is
多すぎだ
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2012-04-27T21:53:02.623
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2012-05-01T00:42:54.397
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Note how this use of the noun form of a verb by itself is similar to, for
instance, _owari!_ (Finished; ended).

> アルゴリズム体操終わり！  
>  (The end of the algorithm exercise!)

You could make the _-i_ word a complete sentence like for instance this with
`-ni narimasu`, which is very humble and polite:

> 終わりに成りました  
>  owari ni narimashita  
>  Lit: something has reached the ending state. (Something has ended.)

In the case of 言い過ぎ, since this is abrupt, what is being elided/understood is
the copula だ which would make it a complete sentence:

> 言い過ぎだ！  
>  Lit: It is saying too much. (That is an **exaggeration** or
> **overstatement**!)

Or with more verbiage, adding the topic "sore wa":

> それは言い過ぎだ！

References for 言い過ぎ: <http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/10848/m0u/>

So the reason why 言い過ぎ was used rather than 言い過ぎる is because the character
wants to say to the other that whatever the other said just now was an
exaggeration, rather than to say "you are exaggerating".

Similarly, if the character wanted to say "That is a lie!", he or she might
say "uso!" which is a noun by itself or "uso da!". ("usoooooo..." would be
more like "no way!" which is different from "You are lying!") To call someone
a liar: "uso tsuki!" This is another noun, where a full sentence might be,
e.g. "omae ga uso tsuki da yo!".
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2012-04-28T00:58:38.647
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Was looking for this and wanted to add "In casual Japanese, sugiru is
frequently shortened to the nominal form sugi, as in hayasugi (早すぎ, too early)
or ososugi (遅すぎ, too late)." from
<https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2015/06/22/language/much-enough-just-
dial/#.WpQLfGpuaUk> .

So perhaps it is just a simple casual contraction and nothing else?
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2018-02-26T13:30:54.520
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