にくい・
Choosing how to express difficulty
Choose according to the source of the barrier. にくい gives a broad, neutral assessment; づらい brings out strain felt by the person acting; がたい makes a severe formal judgment; and かねる says that a role, policy, responsibility, or careful judgment prevents the action. The first two overlap, so treat this as a practical guide rather than a rigid scale.
Start with the kind of barrier
Ask what makes the action difficult and what the sentence is doing socially.
A broad practical or neutral obstacle
にくい
An object, situation, or process makes an action difficult, or an event does not happen readily.
This describes resistance or difficulty, not impossibility.
A burden experienced by the person acting
づらい
The action feels physically uncomfortable, emotionally painful, socially awkward, or personally burdensome.
It overlaps with the neutral form in many physical and practical situations.
Deep moral, psychological, or conceptual resistance
がたい
A formal evaluation presents something as extremely hard to believe, forgive, understand, imagine, or forget.
It is too weighty for most routine problems with tools, objects, or physical tasks.
Formal inability or reluctance
かねる
A professional role, policy, responsibility, circumstance, or lack of support for a judgment prevents the action.
In a professional reply, its courteous delivery usually still communicates a definite refusal.
Neutral difficulty and personally felt strain
にくい is the safer all-purpose choice when you are simply assessing how readily something can be done. づらい more readily places us inside the experience of the person doing it. This difference is especially clear with social discomfort, but it is not absolute: either form may occur with physical, practical, or psychological difficulty.
この質問は範囲が広すぎて、答えにくい。
This question is too broad, so it is difficult to answer.
AnalyzeThe breadth of the question creates a neutral practical obstacle.
みんなの前では、家族についての質問に答えづらい。
It is uncomfortable to answer questions about my family in front of everyone.
AnalyzeThe difficulty is socially and emotionally felt by the person answering.
Ordinary difficulty and severe evaluation
A routine obstacle normally takes にくい, not がたい. The latter belongs to stronger judgments and combines most naturally with an established set of verbs involving belief, forgiveness, understanding, imagination, acceptance, and memory.
When difficulty becomes a refusal
個人情報についての質問には回答しかねます。
We are unable to answer questions about personal information.
AnalyzeThe speaker's professional position makes the action unavailable. Although the wording is courteous, the answer is no.
Where each form sounds at home
Swipe sideways to compare every column.
| Central use | Form | Typical setting | Overall effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad difficulty or resistance | にくい | Everyday speech and general writing | Neutral and widely usable |
| Personally experienced burden | づらい | Conversation and informal or general writing | More personal and experience-centered |
| Severe formal evaluation | がたい | Essays, reports, speeches, reviews, and careful commentary | Weighty, firm, and often strongly evaluative |
| Role-based inability or refusal | かねる | Business, customer service, official speech, and careful prose | Courteous but normally definite |
More examples across the family
この申請画面は入力欄が小さくて、操作しにくい。
The input fields on this application screen are small, making it difficult to operate.
Analyzeこの塗料は乾いた後も色が落ちにくい。
This paint is resistant to fading even after it dries.
Analyze足首が痛くて、階段を下りづらい。
My ankle hurts, so it is difficult to walk down the stairs.
Analyze今の雰囲気では、その理由は聞きづらい。
In the current atmosphere, it feels awkward to ask the reason.
Analyzeこれほど精密な模型を一人で作ったとは信じがたい。
It is hard to believe that one person made such a precise model.
Analyze被害者を非難する発言は許しがたい。
Remarks blaming the victim are unforgivable.
Analyze現在の資料だけでは、正確には回答しかねます。
With only the current materials, we are unable to give an accurate answer.
Analyze当社はその条件では契約を更新しかねます。
Our company is unable to renew the contract under those conditions.
Analyze