やすい
- 1Easy to do; the action can be done without difficulty.
- 2Prone to or liable to; something readily happens or tends to occur.Ex. 1
- 3Describes a person's or thing's natural tendency toward a condition.Ex. 2
Conjugation: inflects like an い形容詞 (やすくない, やすかった, やすそう) (e.g. 読みやすい, 汚れやすい, ひきやすい)
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A neutral, very common pattern used in both speech and writing, from product descriptions and instructions to everyday talk about people's tendencies. It covers both positive ease and neutral or negative proneness, such as getting dirty or catching colds. Its opposite is にくい, and unlike がち or っぽい it describes ease or likelihood rather than habitual frequency or character.
Do not attach やすい to the dictionary form; use the ます-stem, so 汚れやすい, not 汚れるやすい.
Note that this やすい is normally written in hiragana and should not be confused with the adjective 安い meaning cheap.
Learners should remember that やすい conjugates like an い-adjective, giving forms such as わかりやすくない or 使いやすかった.
- にくいN4「にくい」means the opposite: an action is hard to do or something does not easily happen (e.g.,「壊れにくい」), and although it attaches and conjugates exactly like「やすい」, the two cannot be swapped. To say 'hard to...,'「にくい」is more natural than「やすくない」.
- づらいN4「づらい」attaches to the ます-stem just like「やすい」, yet means the opposite: something feels hard to do because of physical difficulty or mental strain, giving it a strongly subjective flavor. When「やすい」expresses a tendency, its antonym is「にくい」, not「づらい」.
- がちN3「がち」is close to「やすい」only in the sense of 'a state easily arises,' stressing that something happens repeatedly and has become a tendency; it is mostly used for bad things and generally not for good ones. It can attach to some nouns (e.g.,「病気がち」) and conjugates like a な-adjective.
- ぎみN3「ぎみ」means an undesirable state is already showing slightly (「風邪ぎみ」= a slight cold right now), while「やすい」describes the tendency of something to happen easily (「風邪をひきやすい」) and works for both good and bad things. 「ぎみ」can also attach to nouns, so the two cannot be interchanged.
- っぽいN3Only the tendency sense overlaps:「忘れっぽい」≈「忘れやすい」, but「っぽい」points to a habitual trait, is colloquial, and often carries a negative nuance; it also attaches to nouns and adjectives to mean 'has a ... feel.' The 'easy to do' sense, as in「読みやすい」, cannot be replaced with「っぽい」.
やすい (easy to / prone to) is the direct opposite of にくい (hard to), while づらい means difficult because of physical or emotional discomfort. がち stresses a frequent, usually undesirable tendency, ぎみ marks a slight sign of a state, and っぽい describes an -ish quality or a characteristic trait in casual speech.
