すぎる is a る-verb meaning "to exceed/pass" or "be excessive." As a stand-alone verb, it can be used as follows:

9時をすぎました。 "It's past 9 o'clock."
学校をすぎたら、駅があります。 "There is a station after you pass (i.e., walk past) the school."
じょうだんがすぎますよ。 "Your joke is excessive."

The combination of Adjectival stem + すぎる creates a new expression "too Adj" such as "too hot" or "too late." Because X的 expressions are な-adjectives, they can also be used in this construction as shown below (). The non-affirmative form of this construction requires さ before すぎる.

	too Affirmative			too non-Affirmative
	い-Adj	すぎる		い-Adj + くな	さすぎる
	たか	すぎる	too expensive	たかくな	さすぎる	too inexpensive
	よ		too good	よくな		too terrible (not good)
	きびし		too strict	きびしくな		too lenient (not strict)
	ひど		too horrible	ひどくな		too not-horrible
	ふる		too old	ふるくな		too not-old
	な-Adj	すぎる		な-Adj + じゃな	さすぎる
	げんき	すぎる	too energetic	げんきじゃな	さすぎる	too non-energetic
	ひま		too idle/unoccupied	ひまじゃな		too non-idle/unoccupied
	ふべん		too inconvenient	ふべんじゃな		too not-inconvenient
	にぎやか		too lively; too noisy	にぎやかじゃな		too not-lively
	日本人的		too Japanese	日本人的じゃな		too non-Japanese-like

Note the exceptional form for the adjective いい.

	そのテストはむずかしすぎて、 いいてんが取れなかった。	The test was too difficult to get a good score. (LIt. "too difficult, so I couldn't get a good score.")
	A: 宿題を今出してもいいですか。 B: もうおそすぎますよ。きげんはきのうでした。	A: Is it OK to submit the homework now. B: It's too late already. The deadline was yesterday.
	A: うちの子はいくら言ってもべんきょうしません。 B: ちょっときびしくなさすぎるんじゃありませんか。	A: My child won't study no matter how much I tell him to. B: You may not be strict enough, I wonder. (Lit. "too lenient (not-strict)")

Compare the following:

	A: テストはむずかしすぎましたか。 B: いいえ、むずかしすぎませんでしたよ。	A: Was the test too hard? B: No, it wasn't too hard.
	A: テストはむずかしすぎましたか。 B: いいえ、むずかしくなさすぎましたよ。	A: Was the test too hard? B: No, it was too easy (lit. "not-hard").

風 pronounced as ふう is a suffix attached to the end of a noun X and creates a new noun meaning "X-manner/X-style." Compare the following. 日本風 is a noun (2 below), but if 風 is preceded by a こんな-series demonostratitve, the combined expression works like a な-adjective (3 below) in front of a noun.

	Noun	Suffix	Pt.	Noun
1.	日本		の	家	a Japanese house
2.	日本	風(ふう)	の	家	a Japanese-style house
3.	あんな	風	な	家	a house of that kind of style
4.	日本	的(てき)	な	家	a Japanese-like house

	あのレストランは名前は日本風だけど、 料理は日本的じゃない。	That restaurant sounds like Japanese, but its food is not Japanese.
	A: 家をたてるなら、どんな風にしたい？ B: アメリカのログハウス風にしたいね。	A: If you are going to build a house, how do you want it? B: I want to make it look like an American log house.

Study the differences between 風 and 的. The first group is acceptable, but the second group is not. This demonstrates that 風 works more like a noun than 的 does.

	日本風がいいです。 あんな風にしたい。	The Japanese-style is good. I would like to do/make it that way.
	日本的がいいです。 あんな的にしたい。	[ungrammatical] [ungrammatical]

Caution: Not all nouns can be combined with 風 to make new nouns.

In Lesson 24, we learned an informal quotation marker って to quote a sentence. The particle って (or its formal version と) can be followed by 言っていました ("They were saying").

天気予ほうでは、こんばん０度になるんですって。
According to the weather forecast, it'll be 0 degree (they say).

Similarly, なんて is a conversational phrase that allows the speaker to quote a sentence and comment on it. The plain copula だ can optionally be inserted before なんて. The comment part can be explicit or implicit (as shown in the Dialogue 3) and often expresses some attitude or emotion (positive or negative) such as preference, admiration, surprise, disappointment, sadness, disgust, and so on.

せっかく作ったのに、だれも食べない（だ）なんて…
I went through the trouble of baking it, and no one will eat it? (How disappointing!)

せっかく作ったのに、だれも食べない（だ）なんて、ざんねんだわ。
I went through the trouble of baking it, and no one will eat it? How disappointing!

一人でぜんぶ食べちゃった（だ）なんて、ひどいわ。
You ate it all? --- How thoughtless!

もうできた（だ）なんて、すごいね！
You finished it already? --- Terrific!