Verb にくい
〜nikui
JLPT N4 Neutral
Formation
Verb-stem + にくい
Express difficulty or complexity; 'hard to', 'difficult to', 'not easily'.
When to use
ます stem + にくい: hard to do (読みにくい). Easy to do: やすい.
Explanation
The ~にくい grammar point is used to express that an action is difficult or relatively hard to do. It is used by attaching にくい to the stem of a verb. It can be translated as 'hard to', 'difficult to', or 'not easily' in English.
Example sentences
Ease (Easy To / Hard To)
Corpus examples (60)
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He is hard to deal with.
政治家としてお金を受け取るのは時として白黒つけにくいこともある。
Accepting money as a politician is sometimes a gray area.
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French is hard to read.
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Russian is very difficult to learn.
君の意見を否定するようで話しにくいんだけど、率直に言わせてもらうよ。
It's hard to say this without sounding like I'm disagreeing with you, but let me be upfront about it.
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Truth is difficult to find at the bottom of a well.
両親と一緒でなければその美術館に入れてもらえないだろうということにトムが気づいていなかったとは、到底考えにくい。
I think it's highly unlikely that Tom was not aware that he wouldn't be allowed to enter the museum without his parents.
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The medicine is hard to swallow.
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Is snoring less likely if you sleep on your side?
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It's really hard to learn a language, or do anything really, if you don't have motivation.
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This problem is difficult to solve.
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How would you do a reef knot that is difficult to untie?
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Old habits die hard. This is particularly true of politics.
しかしながら、日本は相変わらず他の国から十分に理解されておらず、日本人の方も外国人を理解しにくいと思っている。
Yet Japan is still not sufficiently understood by other countries, and the Japanese, likewise, find foreigners difficult to understand.
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It rains so often in the wet season that it's hard to plan outings.
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It is hard for foreigners to learn Japanese.
最近は、航空券の格安チケットも仕組みが複雑すぎて、わかりにくいことが多い。
Lately the discount airline ticket system has gotten so complicated that there's a lot about it I can't figure out.
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Greek is difficult to learn.
パスワードは、覚えやすく、かつ推測されにくいものにしてください。
Choose a password that is easy to remember but difficult to guess.
プラスチックは割れにくい。
Plastic does not break easily.
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I have difficulty chewing.
おそらく、人間の持って生まれた感情の中で、虚栄心ほど抑えにくいものはないだろう。
There is, perhaps, not one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as vanity.
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It's not easy to use, but once I got used to it, it was fine.
また、親しい間柄であることから、暴力の被害を受けやすく、その被害を訴えにくいという実態がある。
Also as they are in an intimate relationship they are in a situation where it is easy for them to suffer from violence and difficult for them to bring complaints about that to court.
投与する量を減らすことが副作用の危機を減少させるとは考えにくい。
It cannot reasonably be assumed that decreasing the dose would reduce the risk of side-effects.