〜やすい / 〜にくい / 〜づらい | Japanese Grammar

Japanese has a tidy set of suffixes that clip onto a verb and turn "do X" into "easy to do X" or "hard to do X": 読みやすい ("easy to read"), 食べにくい ("hard to eat"), 言いづらい ("hard to bring up"). English needs a whole frame — easy to, hard to, plus the verb — but Japanese fuses the ease-or-difficulty judgment directly onto the verb stem and hands you back a single word. And that word is an ordinary い-adjective, so everything you already know about い-adjectives applies to it.

There are three suffixes here, and the interesting part is that the two "difficult" ones — 〜にくい and 〜づらい — are not interchangeable. にくい tends to point at difficulty that lives in the object itself (this pen just won't write); づらい adds a note of the doer's discomfort or reluctance (it's hard for me to say this). Exam prep often flattens that difference into "both mean hard to," but native speakers feel the gap clearly, so it is worth getting right from the start.

The attachment rule: ます-stem + suffix

All three attach to the ます-stem (the 連用形 — the form you would use before ます), never to the dictionary form. Take 読む → 読み, then add the suffix.

Verb	ます-stem	やすい	にくい
読む (yomu)	読み	読みやすい (easy to read)	読みにくい (hard to read)
食べる (taberu)	食べ	食べやすい (easy to eat)	食べにくい (hard to eat)
使う (tsukau)	使い	使いやすい (easy to use)	使いにくい (hard to use)
分かる (wakaru)	分かり	分かりやすい (easy to understand)	分かりにくい (hard to understand)

For how to build the ます-stem for every verb class, see the ます-stem. する verbs contract to し (説明する → 説明しやすい "easy to explain"), and 来る becomes 来（き）— 来にくい "hard to come."

この本は字が大きくて、とても読みやすい。

kono hon wa ji ga ōkikute, totemo yomiyasui

This book has large print, so it's very easy to read.

先生の説明はいつも分かりやすくて助かる。

sensei no setsumei wa itsumo wakariyasukute tasukaru

The teacher's explanations are always easy to follow — it's a big help.

〜やすい also means "prone to / tends to"

〜やすい has a second, closely related sense: not just "easy to do on purpose" but "apt to happen." 壊れやすい is "fragile / breaks easily"; 風邪をひきやすい is "prone to catching colds." The logic is the same — low resistance, little effort needed — but here the low-effort event is one you would rather avoid.

このコップは薄くて壊れやすいから、気をつけてね。

kono koppu wa usukute kowareyasui kara, ki o tsukete ne

This glass is thin and breaks easily, so be careful.

季節の変わり目は、体調を崩しやすい。

kisetsu no kawarime wa, taichō o kuzushiyasui

At the turn of the seasons, you're prone to getting run-down.

〜にくい: inherent, often physical difficulty

〜にくい (from 難い, "hard") frames the difficulty as a property of the thing or situation. The meat is tough; the letters are small; the road is bad. The doer is not especially troubled — the object resists.

この肉、硬くて食べにくかった。

kono niku, katakute tabenikukatta

This meat was tough and hard to eat.

このペン、インクが出なくて書きにくい。

kono pen, inku ga denakute kakinikui

This pen's ink barely comes out — it's hard to write with.

画面が反射して、外だと見にくいね。

gamen ga hansha shite, soto da to minikui ne

The screen reflects, so it's hard to see outdoors.

〜づらい: psychological burden, reluctance, the doer suffers

〜づらい comes from the adjective 辛い ("painful, trying"), and it keeps that flavour: doing the action is a burden on the doer. Often the obstacle is social or emotional rather than physical — it is hard for me to bring this up, hard to ask this favour, awkward to say. Physically hard actions can take づらい too (歩きづらい "hard to walk"), but the connotation is always "and it's a strain on the person doing it."

ちょっと言いづらいんですが、締め切りを過ぎています。

chotto iizurai n desu ga, shimekiri o sugite imasu

This is a little hard to bring up, but the deadline has passed.

彼、忙しそうだったから、手伝ってと頼みづらかった。

kare, isogashisō datta kara, tetsudatte to tanomizurakatta

He looked busy, so it was hard for me to ask him to help.

このヒール、高すぎて歩きづらい。

kono hīru, takasugite arukizurai

These heels are so high they're hard to walk in.

💡

Quick test for にくい vs づらい: ask where the trouble lives. If it is in the object or situation (a tough steak, a bad pen, small print), use にくい. If it is a strain, discomfort, or reluctance in the person doing it (broaching a delicate topic, asking a favour, walking on a hurt foot), use づらい. When both fit — the steak is objectively tough and eating it is unpleasant for you — speakers often pick づらい to foreground their own discomfort.

Note the spelling: 〜づらい is written with づ (the dzu kana), not ず, because it is 辛い voiced by rendaku (つ → づ). ×言いずらい is a genuinely common misspelling even among natives, but the standard, dictionary-correct form is 言いづらい.

The result is an い-adjective — so it conjugates

Whatever you build — 読みやすい, 食べにくい, 言いづらい — is a plain い-adjective, and it inflects exactly like 高い. This is what makes these suffixes so powerful: you already own the whole paradigm.

Form	使いやすい ("easy to use")
Non-past	使いやすい
Past	使いやすかった
Negative	使いやすくない
Te-form	使いやすくて
Noun (〜さ)	使いやすさ ("usability / ease of use")

That last row is worth noticing: because the compound is an い-adjective, it takes 〜さ like any other, giving handy nouns such as 使いやすさ ("usability") and 読みやすさ ("readability") — see the 〜さ nominalizer.

新しいスマホ、思ったより使いやすかったよ。

atarashii sumaho, omotta yori tsukaiyasukatta yo

The new phone was easier to use than I expected.

この道は暗くて夜は歩きにくいから、遠回りしよう。

kono michi wa kurakute yoru wa arukinikui kara, tōmawari shiyō

This street is dark and hard to walk at night, so let's take the long way.

A literary cousin: 〜がたい

You will also meet 〜がたい (from 難い) in more formal or written Japanese, meaning "hard to / can scarcely" — but only with a limited set of verbs, usually about the impossible-to-do-emotionally: 信じがたい ("hard to believe"), 忘れがたい ("unforgettable"), 理解しがたい ("hard to comprehend"). It is not productive the way にくい is; treat it as (literary) set vocabulary rather than a live rule.

彼が嘘をついたなんて、信じがたい話だ。

kare ga uso o tsuita nante, shinjigatai hanashi da

That he lied is a hard thing to believe.

How this differs from English

English keeps the difficulty judgment outside the verb: "easy to read," "hard to eat" — an adjective plus a to-infinitive, two separate words with a gap between them. Japanese fuses them into one derived adjective on the verb stem, and, crucially, it makes a distinction English does not lexicalize at all: English "hard to eat" does not tell you whether the steak is tough (にくい) or whether eating it distresses you (づらい). You would need to add "…and it's unpleasant" to get づらい's nuance across. So when you translate "hard to say," pause: if it is physically hard to pronounce, it is 言いにくい; if it is socially awkward to bring up, it is 言いづらい. English uses the same three words for both.

Common Mistakes

1. Attaching to the dictionary form. These suffixes join the ます-stem, not the dictionary form.

❌ この本は読むやすい。

kono hon wa yomu-yasui

Incorrect — use the ます-stem: 読む → 読み + やすい.

✅ この本は読みやすい。

kono hon wa yomiyasui

This book is easy to read.

2. Spelling 〜づらい as ×〜ずらい. It is 辛い voiced to づらい — the づ kana.

❌ ちょっと言いずらいんですが…

chotto ii-zurai n desu ga

Incorrect spelling — it is 言いづらい, with づ.

✅ ちょっと言いづらいんですが…

chotto iizurai n desu ga

This is a bit hard to bring up, but...

3. Not conjugating the result. The compound is an い-adjective; its past is 〜やすかった, never ×〜やすいだった.

❌ このアプリは使いやすいだった。

kono apuri wa tsukaiyasui datta

Incorrect — an い-adjective takes 〜かった: 使いやすかった.

✅ このアプリは使いやすかった。

kono apuri wa tsukaiyasukatta

This app was easy to use.

4. Using する whole instead of its し-stem. する verbs contract to し before these suffixes.

❌ この文法は説明するにくい。

kono bunpō wa setsumei suru-nikui

Incorrect — する → し: 説明しにくい.

✅ この文法は説明しにくい。

kono bunpō wa setsumei shinikui

This grammar point is hard to explain.

5. Using にくい for social awkwardness. When the difficulty is your own reluctance or discomfort, づらい is the natural choice.

❌ 上司には、休みたいと言いにくい。（気まずさを表したい）

jōshi ni wa, yasumitai to iinikui (kimazusa o arawashitai)

Understandable but off — for social awkwardness/reluctance, 言いづらい fits better.

✅ 上司には、休みたいと言いづらい。

jōshi ni wa, yasumitai to iizurai

It's hard to tell my boss I want to take time off.

Key Takeaways

Attach all three to the ます-stem: 読み + やすい / にくい / づらい.
〜やすい = easy to do, or prone to happen (壊れやすい "breaks easily").
〜にくい = hard to do, difficulty in the object/situation (physical, inherent).
〜づらい = hard to do, a burden on the doer (psychological, reluctant) — spelled with づ.
The result is a full い-adjective: 使いやすかった, 使いやすくない, and the noun 使いやすさ.
〜がたい is a literary near-synonym of にくい, limited to set verbs (信じがたい).

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