N4

Easy / Hard to Do: 〜やすい / 〜にくい

Use 〜やすい and 〜にくい to describe how easy or hard an action feels to perform, understand, remember, or use.

Attach 〜やすい and 〜にくい to verb stems.Describe ease or difficulty from the speaker’s point of view.Recognize the difference between “possible” and “easy to do.”

Guided study

What 〜やすい and 〜にくい mean

These patterns describe how easy or hard an action is to do. They do not simply mean “can” or “cannot.” Instead, they express usability, comfort, clarity, memorability, and practical difficulty.

この辞書は使いやすい。

This dictionary is easy to use.

〜やすい evaluates how easy an action feels.

Interactive word chips will appear once token metadata is added.

この漢字は覚えにくい。

This kanji is hard to remember.

〜にくい highlights practical difficulty, not impossibility.

Interactive word chips will appear once token metadata is added.