Easy and Hard to Do in Japanese: やすい, にくい, and づらい

Saying something is “easy” in Japanese is one thing. Saying a specific action is easy—or hard—to pull off is another. That’s where やすい (yasui) and にくい (nikui) come in: you stick them on a verb stem and turn the action into a trait of the thing you’re talking about, not a report card on your skill level.

Once you hear people describe a textbook as わかりやすい or a truth as 言いづらい, the pattern clicks. Below are the forms, the nuance between にくい and づらい, and enough example sentences to practice without sounding like a dictionary entry.

Contents 9

How to form やすい (yasui) and にくい (nikui)

Both suffixes attach to the verb stem—the same stem you get by dropping ます from the polite form (or the い-sound stem of godan verbs: 読む → 読み, 書く → 書き, 食べる → 食べ).

• Verb stem + やすい → easy to do / tends to happen
• Verb stem + にくい → hard to do

The result behaves like a regular i-adjective: you can say 読みやすいです, 読みやすかった, 読みやすくない, or put it before a noun (使いやすいアプリ).

ひらがなは読みやすいです。
Hiragana wa yomiyasui desu.

Hiragana is easy to read.

This is everyday Japanese: phones, shoes, explanations, roads—anything whose nature makes an action smooth or rough.

How to use にくい (nikui) and づらい (zurai)

When the action is hard, two common choices appear:

• にくい (nikui) — difficulty as a fairly objective trait of the object or situation (a tool that’s awkward, text that’s hard to parse).
• づらい (zurai) — difficulty that feels emotional, awkward, or hard to endure (something uncomfortable to say or face).

The formation is the same as with やすい: stem + にくい / づらい.

Example with にくい:

この教科書はわかりにくい。
Kono kyōkasho wa wakarinikui.

This textbook is hard to understand.

Example with づらい:

本当のことを言いづらい。
Hontō no koto o iizurai.

It’s hard to tell the truth (emotionally awkward, not “technically impossible”).

In real speech the line between にくい and づらい can blur, but aiming にくい at physical or practical friction and づらい at “this weighs on me” will keep you safer than treating them as perfect twins.

When やすい means “tends to” or “prone to”

やすい is not only “easy to…”. It also marks a natural tendency of something or someone:

このグラスは壊れやすい。
Kono gurasu wa kowareyasui.

This glass breaks easily / is prone to break.

彼は風邪をひきやすい。
Kare wa kaze o hikiyasui.

He catches colds easily.

That’s why a slippery floor is 滑りやすい: the place itself invites the action. Context decides whether you hear “easy to do” or “likely to happen.”

Example sentences with yasui and nikui

A few more patterns you can recycle:

この携帯は使いやすい。
Kono keitai wa tsukaiyasui.

This phone is easy to use.

彼女は話しやすい。
Kanojo wa hanashiyasui.

She’s easy to talk to.

もっと歩きやすい靴がほしいです。
Motto arukiyasui kutsu ga hoshī desu.

I want shoes that are easier to walk in.

ここは滑りやすいから気をつけてください。
Koko wa suberiyasui kara ki o tsukete kudasai.

It’s slippery here, so please be careful.

その道は歩きにくかった。
Sono michi wa arukinikukatta.

That road was hard to walk on. (past form of the i-adjective)

These show how やすい and にくい ride on everyday verbs without needing a long 〜するのは難しい paraphrase every time.

Tips worth remembering

Objective vs. emotional difficulty

• Prefer にくい for practical, concrete friction.
• Prefer づらい when the hard part is emotional or socially awkward.

Clearer speech with わかりやすい

もっとわかりやすく教えてください。
Motto wakariyasuku oshiete kudasai.

Please explain it in a way that’s easier to understand. (adverbial 〜やすく)

Pocket books

文庫本は小さくて持ちやすい。
Bunkobon wa chiisakute mochiyasui.

Paperback pocket editions are small and easy to carry.

Constructions like these don’t just grade difficulty—they make opinions and product talk sound natural in Japanese.

Keep practicing

Once やすい and にくい feel automatic, invent your own sentences from things you actually touch: apps, textbooks, paths home. For related verb patterns, see 〜てみる (temiru) and 〜ながら (nagara).

Use the kana + romaji lines above in a deck if that helps—small, repeated examples beat one long grammar monologue. Study well.