Es difícil acordarse de todos los nombres nuevos el primer día.

In this sentence, es difícil means it is difficult in a general sense.

Spanish usually uses ser with adjectives like difícil, fácil, importante, normal when you are describing something as a general fact:

• Es difícil aprender japonés.
• Es fácil perderse aquí.

Está difícil can exist, but it often sounds more like it’s difficult right now / under the current circumstances. So here, Es difícil acordarse... is the natural choice for a general statement.

Spanish often does not use a dummy subject like English it.

English says:

• It is difficult to remember...

Spanish simply says:

• Es difícil acordarse...

The it is not translated. This is very common with expressions like:

• Es importante estudiar.
• Es bueno descansar.
• Es normal sentirse así.

So Es difícil already means It is difficult.

Because acordarse is the verb that means to remember.

This is a pronominal verb, so it normally appears with the reflexive pronoun:

• acordarse de algo = to remember something

By contrast, acordar without -se usually means something else, such as:

• to agree
• to arrange
• to decide

For example:

• Acordamos una fecha. = We agreed on a date.

So in your sentence, acordarse is correct because the meaning is to remember.

Because the verb pattern is:

• acordarse de + noun / pronoun / infinitive

So you say:

• Me acuerdo de tu nombre.
• ¿Te acuerdas de ella?
• Nos acordamos de llamar.

That means:

• acordarse de todos los nombres nuevos = to remember all the new names

You cannot normally say acordarse todos los nombres. The de is required with this verb.

When a reflexive or pronominal verb is in the infinitive, the pronoun is attached to the end:

• acordarse
• levantarse
• irse

So:

• Es difícil acordarse...

is the infinitive form of the pronominal verb.

If the verb were conjugated, the pronoun would go before it:

• Me acuerdo de tu nombre.
• Se acuerdan de todo.

So the sentence uses the infinitive acordarse, and that is why the se is attached.

Yes, you could also say:

• Es difícil recordar todos los nombres nuevos el primer día.

That also means It’s difficult to remember all the new names on the first day.

The difference is mainly grammatical:

• recordar algo → no de
• acordarse de algo → needs de

So:

• recordar todos los nombres
• acordarse de todos los nombres

Both are common and correct. In everyday speech, many speakers use both, though acordarse de is very common in conversation.

In Spanish, when you mean all the + plural noun, you usually say:

• todos los
• todas las

So:

• todos los nombres = all the names

You need the article los here.

Compare:

• todos los libros = all the books
• todas las casas = all the houses

So todos los nombres nuevos is the normal structure.

In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• nombres nuevos = new names
• libro interesante = interesting book
• casa grande = big house

That is the standard position.

Sometimes adjectives can come before the noun, but that often changes the tone or emphasis. Here, nombres nuevos is the normal, neutral way to say new names.

Because primero shortens to primer before a masculine singular noun.

This is called apocope.

So:

• el primero = the first one
• el primer día = the first day

Other examples:

• el primer libro
• mi tercer coche
• buen día (from bueno)

Since día is masculine singular, Spanish uses primer.

Because Spanish normally uses the definite article in many time expressions like this.

Here:

• el primer día = on the first day

The article is part of the normal expression. Spanish often uses el/la/los/las where English may not.

For example:

• el lunes = on Monday
• el año pasado = last year
• el primer día = on the first day

So the article is not optional here in normal usage.

Because Spanish often uses a time expression without a preposition to mean on a certain day or occasion.

So:

• el primer día = on the first day

This is very natural in Spanish.

You might also hear en el primer día in some contexts, but it is less natural here. In this sentence, el primer día works as a straightforward time expression, just like:

• Llegó el lunes. = He arrived on Monday.
• Lo vi el otro día. = I saw him the other day.

Grammatically, it is a pronominal verb, and many learners first meet it as a reflexive-looking verb because of se.

But in meaning, you should not think of it as literally to remember oneself. It is just the fixed verb form:

• acordarse de = to remember

So although it uses a pronoun, it does not usually translate as a true reflexive action in English.

This is common in Spanish. Some verbs use pronouns as part of their normal form and are best learned as whole units.

The full dictionary form you should learn is:

• acordarse de algo = to remember something

If you only learn acordar, you may confuse it with the different non-pronominal verb meaning to agree / arrange.

So for vocabulary study, it is best to write it down as:

• acordarse de

not just acordarse, and definitely not just acordar, if your target meaning is to remember.

Because recordar and acordarse have different grammar patterns.

• recordar + direct object
• acordarse de + noun

So:

• recordar todos los nombres ✅
• acordarse de todos los nombres ✅
• recordar de todos los nombres ❌
• acordarse todos los nombres ❌

This is a very common learner mistake, so it helps to memorise each verb with its pattern.

Here it means new names, meaning names you have just learned, for example when meeting new people.

So the idea is that on the first day, it is hard to remember everyone’s names.

Spanish puts the adjective after the noun in the normal order:

• nombres nuevos = new names

This does not mean the names themselves are newly invented; it means they are new to you in the context.

Yes, but the given order is natural and neutral:

• Es difícil acordarse de todos los nombres nuevos el primer día.

You could move the time phrase for emphasis:

• El primer día es difícil acordarse de todos los nombres nuevos.

That means the same thing, but now el primer día is more prominent.

Both are correct; the original sentence is just a very natural way to say it.

Because difícil is spelled with a written accent on the í.

It is simply the correct spelling of the word. The accent helps show the stress:

• di-FÍ-cil

The plural is:

• difíciles

This is just something to memorise as part of the word’s spelling.