Forum Rocket Japanese Japanese Grammar Question about meaning of 飲み (飲み過ぎ)

Question about meaning of 飲み (飲み過ぎ)

イ リ ニ

イ リ ニ

Hello,
I have a question about how the verb 飲む is being used in module 4.1:

飲み過ぎですよ / you drank too much

Where exactly do you get 飲み from (it doesn't seem to be listed as any tense or form when I look up different conjugations of the verb).  Is this a casual way of saying "drink?"  Or is this not really a verb but a play on the verb?  A noun form of the verb? :-)  In other examples online used with 過ぎ I see the same type of variation:

​食べ過ぎ / you ate too much

Any light someone could shed would be great.  Thanks so much!

 
toru e

toru e

Hi イリニ、it's the stem form of the verb. When forming it, you would just conjugate the verb short form to the present tense and drop "masu" (for "ru"/ichidan verbs). The "[Verb] too much"/Verb ~すぎる grammar is formed such that it's: V-stem + すぎる, so it's:

たべる [食べる] -> たべます  ->たべすぎる (to eat too much)
ねる [寝る] -> ねます -> ねすぎる (to sleep too much)

Edited to add: Here's a link to conjugating the stem form from Tofugu: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-stem-form-conjugation/
イ リ ニ

イ リ ニ

Ok, thank you.  I'm not used to seeing the short form like this/used like this.  I really enjoyed the Tofugu site and have been heavily side-tracked learning kanji there for the past 2 weeks!!
Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

こんにちは (Konnichiwa) toru e and イ リ ニ,

Thanks for the question!

toru e is 100% correct! 飲み (nomi) is the stem form of the verb 飲む (nomu) "drink." By itself it doesn't have any meaning, but the stem form is really handy for forming other grammar structures! 

You can check out how to use the stem form in more detail in this brand new lesson on verbs: 
https://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/japanese/lessons/5044/2-6-making-sentences-with-verbs

One of the ways we can use this stem form is by adding it to すぎる (sugiru) "to exceed" to say something is "too much." Eg: 飲みすぎる (nomisugiru) "to drink too much."

You can read all about how to use すぎる (sugiru) in this lesson: 
https://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/japanese/lessons/5174/6-7-Making-a-Point

The すぎ (sugi) in のむすぎ (nomisugi) is the stem form of すぎる (sugiru). When you use a verb with the stem form すぎ (sugi), you can change the verb into a noun! That's why 飲みすぎる (nomisugiru) "drink too much" becomes 飲みすぎ (nomisugi) "over-drinking."

There are lots of of the nouns that use this same structure. For example:
  • 食べすぎ (tabesugi) "over-eating"
  • 寝過ぎ (nesugi) "over-sleeping"
  • やりすぎ (yarisugi) "over-doing"
  • 使いすぎ (tsukaisugi) "over-use"
Note that using すぎ (sugi) in the stem form like this is very casual, so you should only use it with friends and family.

I hope this helped! Please let me know if you have any other questions!

べんきょう を がんばって ください! (Benykō o ganbatte kudasai!)

 

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