Was Too Much
“In reality, there are an infinite number of perspectives, but we act as if there were only one.” - Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel
Past tense すぎる is pretty easy. We’ve already gone over it (a little) earlier in this chapter, but let’s refresh. すぎる is a Group 2 Verb, meaning to make it into past tense you would…?
すぎた
Nice and simple. If you understood the last few chapters, too, it’s just as simple as switching out すぎる with すぎた. If you do this, then the thing you do or have too much of becomes past tense. For example:
aすし を たべすぎる
I will eat too much sushi
aすし を たべすぎた
I ate too much sushi
Doesn’t that second sentence feel so much better in past tense? I ate too much sushi. When すぎた is past tense, it makes the verb it’s attached to past tense as well. Remember how the end of the sentence in Japanese usually dictates the tense of the entire overall thing? Same goes for すぎる. You ate too much. The whole verb / combo verb (たべすぎた) becomes past tense.
Same goes with adjectives too.
aこの ゲーム は たかすぎる
This game is too expensive
aこの ゲーム は たかすぎた
This game was too expensive
The whole sentence becomes past tense, just like with verbs. Now let’s practice a bit using both present/future tense and past tense. I put together a worksheet for you to go through – it should help solidify both すぎる and すぎた in simple sentences. After you finish that, we’ll start expanding out into slight modifications, even learning a couple new particles in the process (though you kind of know one of them, already).