づらい
- 1Hard to do because it feels emotionally awkward or uncomfortable.Ex. 1
- 2Hard to do because of a physical condition or discomfort.Ex. 2
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Used in everyday conversation and neutral writing for actions a person finds difficult, such as saying something awkward or riding something while injured. It emphasizes the person's experience of difficulty, whereas にくい can also describe difficulty arising from an object's properties.
Note that for an object's resistance to breaking, 壊れにくい is more usual than 壊れづらい; 壊れやすい means “easy to break.”
Note that the past form is づらかった, as in the second example.
Learners sometimes write つらい after the verb stem, but this pattern uses づらい.
- にくいN4「にくい」attaches the same way but leans toward objective difficulty caused by a thing's nature or conditions; for changes that rarely happen, as in 「壊れにくい」, only 「にくい」 works, while psychological embarrassment takes 「づらい」.
- がたいN3「がたい」also attaches to the ます-stem but stresses that something is almost impossible—hard to believe or forgive—and can also mean objectively rare or hard to approach, with a formal, written tone; physical strain or reluctance to speak calls for 「づらい」 instead.
- かねるN2「かねる」is formal and usually means something is inconvenient to do due to one's position, rules, or propriety, often serving as a polite refusal, and it can also express hesitation (e.g., 「決めかねる」); it cannot express physical strain, and refusals should not be rephrased with 「づらい」.
- ようがない / ようもないN2「ようがない」means there is simply no way—objectively impossible—whereas 「づらい」 means you can do it but it feels physically or mentally tough; e.g., 「言いようがない」 means there's no way to put it into words, while 「言いづらい」 means it's hard to bring oneself to say, so they are not interchangeable.
にくい can describe more objective difficulty, while づらい emphasizes the person's experience; がたい conveys extreme difficulty, often in formal expressions. かねる expresses inability or reluctance, often in a polite refusal, whereas ようがない / ようもない means there is no way to do something.
