El conflicto no es fácil de solucionar.

The conflict is not easy to solve.

Breakdown of El conflicto no es fácil de solucionar.

• ser: to be
• fácil: easy
• solucionar: to solve
• el conflicto: the conflict

Questions & Answers about El conflicto no es fácil de solucionar.

Why do we use no es fácil de solucionar instead of something like *no es fácil solucionar?

In Spanish, after certain adjectives like fácil, difícil, difícil, or imposible, we often add de before the infinitive. This is a common structure to express the notion of being easy/difficult to do something. While you might see “no es fácil solucionar” in casual speech, the more standard phrasing in Spanish is no es fácil de solucionar.

Why is fácil masculine here? Shouldn’t it agree with conflicto in gender?

Adjectives like fácil remain the same form whether they describe masculine or feminine nouns because they end in -l in their base form. The word fácil is invariable in terms of gender, so whether the noun is masculine (el conflicto) or feminine (la situación), the adjective stays as fácil.

Could I say El conflicto es difícil de solucionar instead?

Yes, that would simply change the meaning from not easy to difficult. The structure remains correct: El conflicto es difícil de solucionar. Replacing fácil with difícil doesn’t alter the grammar, just the meaning.

What’s the difference between solucionar, resolver, and arreglar?

All three verbs can mean something like to fix or to solve, but they have slightly different connotations or typical uses:
• Solucionar: Emphasizes finding a solution to a problem.
• Resolver: Also emphasizes resolving an issue, sometimes focusing on the decision or outcome.
• Arreglar: Can mean to fix something physically or figuratively (like to organize or to mend).

Could we place no es fácil de solucionar at the start of the sentence, like No es fácil de solucionar el conflicto?

Yes, that’s grammatically acceptable in Spanish. Word order can change slightly without losing meaning, though emphasizing the noun at the beginning can help clarity. Usually, El conflicto no es fácil de solucionar sounds a bit more natural in written Spanish, but No es fácil de solucionar el conflicto is also valid.

Why do we say El conflicto and not something like La conflict or La conflicto?

In Spanish, conflicto is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine article el. Nouns that end in -o are often masculine, though there are exceptions. Conflicto consistently follows the masculine pattern, so we use el.