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Ce casse-tête est tellement ingénieux que j'ai du mal à le comprendre.

Ce casse-tête est tellement ingénieux que j'ai du mal à le comprendre.
This puzzle is so ingenious that I have trouble understanding it.
From Lesson 366:Ultimate outcomes (finir par)·French

Questions & Answers about Ce casse-tête est tellement ingénieux que j'ai du mal à le comprendre.

Could I use si instead of tellement in this sentence?
Yes, you could perfectly say si ingénieux que. Both si and tellement can mean "so" when paired with que (so... that). Si is a bit more literary and can only modify adjectives and adverbs, whereas tellement is common in everyday speech and can also modify verbs.
Why is it à in j'ai du mal à?
The French expression for "to have trouble doing something" or "to find it hard to do something" is avoir du mal à followed by an infinitive. It is a fixed phrase, so you must always use the preposition à here, never de.
Why is the pronoun le placed right before comprendre instead of before ai?
In French, object pronouns are placed immediately before the verb they logically belong to. Because you are struggling to understand it (le comprendre), the pronoun is the direct object of the infinitive, not of the conjugated verb ai.
Since casse-tête is a compound noun, how would I write it in the plural?
Traditionally, compound nouns made of a verb and a singular noun like casse-tête (break-head) do not change in the plural (des casse-tête). However, modern spelling reforms also accept adding an 's' to the end (des casse-têtes). The pronunciation remains exactly the same.

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