分かりにくい · i-adjective
| Form | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Dictionary | 分かりにくい | 分かりにくくない |
| Polite | 分かりにくいです | 分かりにくくないですalso 分かりにくくありません |
| Past polite | 分かりにくかったです | 分かりにくくなかったですalso 分かりにくくありませんでした |
| Past | 分かりにくかった | 分かりにくくなかった |
| Te-form | 分かりにくくて | 分かりにくくなくて |
| Adverbial | 分かりにくく | |
| Conditional | 分かりにくければ | 分かりにくくなければ |
| Tara conditional | 分かりにくかったら | 分かりにくくなかったら |
hard to understand; incomprehensible; unintelligible
Describes something that is difficult to grasp, follow, or make sense of; can refer to explanations, instructions, behavior, or situations.
この説明は分かりにくい。
This explanation is hard to understand.
His attitude is difficult to figure out.
This textbook has too many confusing explanations, which is frustrating.
The way to this station was so confusing that I got lost.
When there's a lot of technical jargon, the talk becomes hard to follow.
His report is written in hard-to-understand prose.
不明瞭 is a more formal, written word for unclear speech, writing, or images, while 分かりにくい is the everyday, broader term.
曖昧 means vague or ambiguous (lacking clear definition), whereas 分かりにくい means hard to understand even if the content itself is not ambiguous.
分かりやすい means easy to understand, the direct opposite of 分かりにくい (hard to understand).
読みにくい means the text is hard to physically read (illegible or hard to decipher), whereas 分かりにくい means the content is hard to understand even if it can be read fine.
Very rare combination; essentially unused in modern Japanese.
Rare alternative using 悪い; not standard.