にくい vs づらい: How to Say Something Is Hard to Do in Japanese

In Japanese, “it’s difficult” is often too blunt. When you mean a concrete action — reading, saying, carrying, explaining — learners reach for にくい (nikui) and づらい (zurai / sometimes written dzurai). Both clip onto a verb and sound like “hard to …,” yet they don’t smell the same: one names a property of the thing; the other puts the burden on the person doing it.

If you already know the partner form やすい (yasui) for “easy to …”, this is the other side of the coin — plus the stricter cousin がたい (gatai).

Contents 6

Formation: ます-stem + にくい / づらい

Both suffixes attach to the ます-stem (連用形): take the form before ます, then add にくい or づらい. Not the dictionary form, and not a vague “replace ます or う” — the stem is the reliable rule.

• 読む → 読み + にくい → 読みにくい (hard to read)
• 食べる → 食べ + にくい → 食べにくい (hard to eat)
• 言う → 言い + づらい → 言いづらい (hard to say / hard to bring up)
• 説明する → 説明し + づらい → 説明しづらい (hard to explain)

The result is an ordinary い-adjective: 読みにくい, 読みにくかった, 読みにくくない. Kanji at the end of the verb are uncommon: にくい can be 難い, and づらい ties back to 辛い (rendaku: つ → づ). In practice these endings stay in kana; the standard spelling is づらい, not ずらい.

漢字は読みにくいです。
Kanji wa yomi-nikui desu.
Kanji are hard to read.

にくい vs づらい: where does the difficulty sit?

にくい often feels more neutral and objective: the difficulty lives in the object, structure, or situation — small print, tough meat, a bulky dictionary. づらい keeps a trace of 辛い (“painful, trying”): the action is awkward, socially delicate, or straining for me. A useful classroom shorthand: にくい explains; づらい feels.

Aspect	〜にくい	〜づらい
Core	neutral / objective difficulty	felt / subjective burden
Source	object, form, external condition	feeling, social friction, doer’s discomfort
Tone	explanatory, often written	conversational, more emotional
Typical verbs	読む, わかる, 使う, 見る	言う, 断る, 頼む, 打ち明ける

They can overlap: long chopsticks may be 使いにくい or 使いづらい, depending on whether you stress the object’s awkwardness or your own strain. For pure product traits (a machine that rarely breaks, tough material), にくい sounds more natural: 壊れにくい, not 壊れづらい.

Quick test: Is the problem in the thing? → にくい. Is the load on you (hesitation, embarrassment, physical strain)? → づらい.

がたい: nearly impossible, often formal

There is also がたい — same 難い kanji family, but narrower and more formal. It marks something as very hard or scarcely possible, often with verbs of belief, understanding, or memory: 信じがたい (hard to believe), 忘れがたい (unforgettable). It is less productive than にくい; treat it more as polished set vocabulary than a free everyday rule for every verb.

君の言うことは信じがたい。
Kimi no iu koto wa shinji-gatai.
What you say is hard to believe. (nearly impossible to accept)

Context decides: everyday action with a clear cause → usually にくい/づらい. Emotional impossibility or written style → がたい can fit.

Example sentences with づらい and にくい

Below are natural sentences with clean stems. Notice whether the difficulty sits “outside” or “on me.”

とにかく、言いづらい事を打ち明けてくれてうれしいよ。
Tonikaku, ii-zurai koto o uchiakete kurete ureshī yo.
Anyway, I’m glad you brought up this difficult topic.

これは説明しづらいです。
Kore wa setsumei-shi-zurai desu.
This is hard to explain. (for me / awkward to lay out)

これは言いづらいです。
Kore wa ii-zurai desu.
This is hard to say.

この肉は食べにくいです。
Kono niku wa tabe-nikui desu.
This meat is hard to eat. (tough / awkward — more about the object)

More examples with にくい

この辞書は重たくて持ちにくいです。
Kono jisho wa omotakute mochi-nikui desu.
This dictionary is heavy and hard to carry.

• この：this
• 辞書（じしょ）：dictionary
• 重たい（おもたい）：heavy (weight)
• 持つ（もつ）：to hold / carry
• にくい：hard to …

僕はフォークとナイフのほうが使いにくいと思います。
Boku wa fōku to naifu no hō ga tsukai-nikui to omoimasu.
I think a fork and knife are harder to use.

• 僕（ぼく）：I
• フォーク：fork
• ナイフ：knife
• ほうが：rather (comparison)
• 使う（つかう）：to use
• 思う（おもう）：to think / find

この教科書の例文がわかりにくい。
Kono kyōkasho no reibun ga wakari-nikui.
The example sentences in this textbook are hard to understand.

• 教科書（きょうかしょ）：textbook
• 例文（れいぶん）：example sentence
• わかる：to understand

印刷が見にくい。
Insatsu ga mi-nikui.
The print is hard to see / hard to read.

• 印刷（いんさつ）：print
• 見る（みる）：to see

What to remember

にくい often names what is awkward about the thing; づらい lets you feel that the action strains you; がたい marks extreme or formal impossibility. Build the form on the ます-stem, conjugate like an い-adjective — and choose the nuance by where the difficulty sits, not only by the English word “hard.”