difficult to, hard to
Structure
- Verb[stem] + にくい
漢字は覚えにくいと思う。This is almost exactly the sentence where Genki warns that it is odd to use にくい (this case being an example of difficulty defined in terms of physical or statistical success rate). They say that 漢字は覚えにくい should be interpreted as “I have kanji anxieties” instead of commenting on the general process of learning kanji. They advise using 難しい to express the latter. Can anyone shed some light?
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I don’t really understand the 〜にくい／〜づらい difference. The explanation is that “the nuance of にくい is that (A) is a task that is difficult to do, because of the required skill level, or similar factors.”; but then the first example sentence is “Cakes that aren’t sweet are hard to eat”, and I don’t see how eating non-sweet cakes is a matter of skill? づらい would actually seem to fit better following Bunpro’s explanation
It has taken me some time to get comfortable with these grammar points, but I think I’m getting an intuitive idea after hearing it “in the wild.”
If you are making a judgment about the quality of something, then にくい is better. So when you say “Cakes that aren’t sweet are hard to eat” it’s like you are making a judgment about the quality of the cake, rather than focusing on how you feel when you eat it. If you use づらい here it’s more like you feel uneasy about eating the cake for some reason.
Generally, use にくい about things that are kind of objective, such as something not functioning well (in the cake example, an unsweet cake is not functioning well as a dessert). づらい is more about your subjective feeling in that moment.
As an example, there are some sentences in the づらい point where you might have expected to see にくい instead. For example, one of them was 後ろの席からは見えづらい.
If you use にくい it’s more like a factual statement “Visibility from the back seat is poor” whereas づらい is more like “I can’t really see well from the back seat.”
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