Japanese Grammar In Its Natural Habitat
Wild Nihongo!
~にくい

~にくい

~にくい Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Auxiliary Adjective

Essential Meaning: Hard to / Difficult to / Not readily

Construction: 

  • Verb ます-Form + にくい
    • E.g. 食たべにくい [Difficult to eat]
    • E.g. 話はなしにくい [Difficult to speak]

Notes:

  • ~にくい is an auxiliary adjective that means “Difficult to” or “Hard to”. にくい functions grammatically identically to other い-Adjectives.
  • The antonym of ~にくい is ~やすい.
    • E.g. 寿司すしは食たべやすいです。[Sushi is easy to eat.]
    • E.g. 寿司すしは食たべにくいです。[Sushi is difficult to eat.]
  • The subject of a ~にくい expression may be:
    • (1) The subject of an intransitive verb
      • E.g. このドアが開ひらきにくいですね。[This door does not open easily, does it?] ドア is the subject of the intransitive verb 開ひらく [To open].
    • (2) The direct object of a transitive verb
      • E.g. あの人ひとの名前なまえは覚おぼえにくい。[That person’s name is difficult to remember.] あの人ひとの名前なまえ is the direct object of the transitive verb 覚おぼえる [To remember].
    • (3) The indirect object of a transitive verb
      • E.g. あの先生せんせいは話はなしにくいです。[That teacher is difficult to talk to.] あの先生せんせい is the indirect object of the transitive verb 話はなす [To speak].
    • (4) A Noun + Particle. This corresponds to an English prepositional phrase such as “With X” or “To X“, as in “It is difficult to do Y with X” or “It is difficult to do Y to X.” Note that the particle may be optionally dropped.
      • E.g. この靴くつでは走はしりにくいです。[It is difficult to walk with these shoes on.] 靴くつ is the noun and で is the particle.
      • E.g. あの先生せんせいには話はなしにくいです。[That teacher is difficult to talk to.] あの先生せんせい is the noun and に is the particle.
  • Because the structure Verb ます-Form + にくい essentially acts as an adjective to modify a noun, it is preceded by topic / subject markers は or が and is not directly preceded by other noun markers such as を, で, に, and と.

Example Sentences:

この本ほんは大変たいへん読よみにくいです。[This book is very difficult to read.]

このドアが開ひらきにくいですね。[This door does not open easily, does it?]

あの人ひとの名前なまえは覚おぼえにくい。[That person’s name is difficult to remember.]

あの先生せんせいは話はなしにくいです。[That teacher is difficult to talk to.]

この靴くつでは走はしりにくいです。[It is difficult to walk with these shoes on.]

WILD Examples:

Listen to this line at 0:45: 乳にゅうがん動脈硬化どうみゃくこうか骨粗鬆症こつそしょうしょうにはイソフラボノイド、骨粗鬆症こつそしょうしょうって言いいにくいぞ [It has isoflavinoids to ward off breast cancer, atherosclerosis, and osteoporosis. Speaking of osteoporosis, it’s difficult to pronounce!]
Listen to this line at 2:26: 落おちにくい口紅くちべにを塗ぬり直なおす君きみは誰だれだ [You who re-reapplies your long-lasting (i.e. not easily fading) lipstick, who are you?]

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