What is the correct grammatical structure for to say "too [adj] to [verb]"? For example, "this is too sweet to eat" or "It's too bright outside to sleep". Would it be something like 「甘いすぎるから、食べる事ができない」？But I feel this translates more to "because it's too sweet, I can't it eat". I'm looking for a more natural way to say this that would resemble the English "too [adj] to [verb]". Anyone can help? Thank you so much in advance.
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1Be careful about trying to make translations closer to English. It often is not possible, and when it is, it is often actually making it sound less natural for native speakers.– DarcinonCommented Aug 18, 2015 at 22:30
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2 Answers
this is too sweet to eat
甘すぎて、食べられない
It's too bright outside to sleep
明るすぎて、眠れない
The ~sugite is not always necessary.
明るくて、眠れない
I'm using the potential form of the verb here. You can use ことができない to replace it if you're uncomfortable with it, but the long form sounds stiff to me.
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@Blavius Not required, but it helps provide context. I find a plain 甘くて食べられない quite odd on its own without further context.– oalsCommented Aug 19, 2015 at 5:44
I'm Japanese native speaker.
Your sentence, "甘いすぎるから、食べる事ができない" is a little strange. Correct one is "甘すぎるから、食べる事ができない". Japanese words change irregularly influenced by back word. There are 6 types of verb conjugation. I guess it's a little complex for non-native speakers, haha.
Anyway, I guess you want to emphasize "甘い" don't you?
Then your sentence already includes the expression for emphasis, "すぎる".
Or you feel another problem for your expression? At least when I learned English, I heard, "When we translate "too [adj] to [verb]" into Japanese, we should use the structure, "[adj] because..."." So it's alright to use it, I think.
