How to say "too quickly", "too recklessly" etc

Question

When I want to say that something is too quick, just as an example, I can simply say

速すぎる。

However, I don't quite know how I could express sentences with "too" adverbially, such as in "I became sick because I ate the cake too quickly".

I came up with these two translations for the example above:

1. ケーキの食べ方が速すぎて病気になってしまいました。
2. ケーキを食べるのが速すぎて病気になってしまいました。

Do these convey the intented meaning? What would be more natural alternatives? And lastly, and I'm sorry for straying a little bit away from the original question here: Is 病気になる a natural way to say "become sick" in this case?

Answer 1

Your sentences are grammatical and natural-sounding (except for the use of 「病気になる」, which I will come back to later).

We say:

「Action A + の + が + 速{はや}すぎて + Action B」 ← The 「の」 is a nominalizer.

「Action A + 方{かた} + が + 速{はや}すぎて + Action B」 ← Use the continuative form for the verb in Action A -- 食べ方、歩き方、話し方、やり方, etc.

「Action A + の/方 + が + 速すぎる/すぎた + ため（に） + Action B」

Your two sentences are good because you used the first two of the three patterns above.

The mistake I occasionally see in Japanese-learners trying to express this is where they directly translate from English and end up saying it like:

・「速すぎて食べる」

・「速すぎる食べる」

Those sound highly unnatural and ungrammatical. In Japanese, you cannot use 「速すぎる・速すぎて」 to directly modify a verb the same way you can use "too quickly" to modify a verb in English.

Finally, regarding 「病気になる」. This phrase sounds far more serious than the English "to become or feel sick" for eating something too quickly. 「病気になる」 means none other than "to incur a disease".

The verb phrase that would fit in your sentences much better would be 「（気持{きも}ち / 気分{きぶん}）が悪{わる}くなる」.