たくさん食べる

You place takusan right before the verb taberu. It acts as an adverb to describe how much you eat. If you want to be polite, change it to takusan tabemasu. If you are talking about the past, use takusan tabeta. You do not need complex particles to make this work. It is a very flexible building block for your Japanese. Just remember to use it when the portion size is impressive!

Use this phrase at an all-you-can-eat buffet. It is perfect when your grandma keeps piling food on your plate. You can use it to describe a growing teenager's appetite. It is also great for planning a big dinner with friends. If you see a cute animal eating a lot, use it then too! It is a positive, energetic phrase for food lovers.

Avoid using this in extremely formal business ceremonies. In those cases, use humble or honorific verbs like itadaku. Do not use it if you only ate a tiny snack. That would be quite confusing for your listener! Also, if you are feeling sick from eating, use tabesugita instead. Takusan taberu is usually about the action, not the regret.

In Japan, eating heartily is often seen as a sign of health. Hosts feel very happy when guests eat a lot. It shows that the food is delicious and the guest is happy. There is a specific word, tabe-buri, for how someone looks while eating. A "good" tabe-buri means you look like you are enjoying your food. So, saying you will eat a lot is often a compliment to the cook!

You might hear ippai taberu, which feels a bit more casual. Mori-mori taberu is a fun way to say someone is eating energetically. If you want to say "eat too much," use tabesugiru. For a very polite version, try takusan itadakimasu. Each variation adds a little different flavor to your sentence. But takusan taberu remains the most reliable and standard choice.