にくい

Hard to Do

Level 2Sounds Like nikui

The pattern 〜にくい (nikui) is used to express that an action is difficult to perform or that something has a physical property that makes it resistant to a certain process. It focuses on objective obstacles rather than the speaker's internal feelings.

How It Works

〜にくい is primarily used for objective difficulty. This means the difficulty comes from the nature of the object or the situation itself, rather than the speaker's psychological state.

Key Characteristics:

  • Physical Attributes: Used when something is hard to do because of its shape, size, or quality (e.g., a pen that is hard to hold).
  • Resistance/Durability: Used with non-volitional verbs to show something doesn't happen easily (e.g., 'hard to break' or 'hard to rust').
  • Logical Obstacles: Used when something is hard to understand or follow due to its complexity.

Grammar Note: When using this pattern, the object of the verb often becomes the subject of the sentence, marked by は or が. For example, instead of 'I find it hard to read the book,' you say 'The book is hard to read' (本は読みにくい).

Examples (4)

  1. このペンは細すぎて、書きにくいです。

    This pen is too thin, so it is hard to write with.

    Word by Word: This pen (topic) too thin, write-hard is.

    Here, にくい describes a physical difficulty caused by the pen's size.

  2. このグラスはプラスチックだから、壊れにくい。

    This glass is plastic, so it doesn't break easily.

    Word by Word: This glass (topic) plastic because, break-hard.

    In this case, にくい indicates resistance or durability (it is hard to break).

  3. 彼の説明は専門用語が多くて分かりにくい。

    His explanation is hard to understand because there are many technical terms.

    Word by Word: His explanation (topic) technical terms (subject) many, understand-hard.

    This shows a logical difficulty based on the complexity of the content.

  4. 冬は洗濯物が乾きにくいですね。

    Laundry is hard to dry in winter, isn't it?

    Word by Word: Winter (topic) laundry (subject) dry-hard, right?

    This describes a natural resistance to a process (drying) due to the environment.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the object particle を instead of は or が.

    この本を読みにくいです。
    この本は読みにくいです。

    Because にくい turns the verb into an adjective describing the noun, the noun should be the subject (が) or topic (は), not the object (を).

  • Attaching にくい to the dictionary form of the verb.

    読むにくいです。
    読みにくいです。

    You must use the ます-stem (ren'youkei) of the verb. For 読む（よむ）, the stem is 読み（よみ）.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

にくいLevel 2Hard to Do

Learn This First

To use にくい, you must first know how to find the stem of a verb using the ます form. Additionally, because the resulting word behaves like an い-adjective, you need to understand how い-adjectives are used in sentences.

Words in This Pattern

にくい