auxiliary N3 common casualpolitewritten
〜づらい — hard to ~
〜づらい ・ づらい
Builds on 連用形（ます形）
Meaning
- hard to ~ / find it difficult to ~ — doing the action is uncomfortable or awkward for the speaker
Key sentence
彼には言いづらいことがある。
There's something I find hard to tell him.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb ます-stem + づらい (conjugates as an い-adjective) | V[ます-stem] + づらい | 歩きづらい / 読みづらい / 頼みづらい |
Examples
この靴は小さくて歩きづらい。
These shoes are small and hard to walk in.
字が小さくて読みづらいです。
The print is tiny and hard to read.
Easily confused with
にくい にくい states an objective difficulty in the thing itself (割れにくいガラス, 'glass that's hard to break'); づらい centres on the *doer's* discomfort or reluctance — often physical strain or social awkwardness in performing the action. 難い 難い is literary and marks something psychologically or morally hard to do (信じ難い, 'hard to believe'); づらい is everyday and concrete — about the act being uncomfortable to carry out.
Notes
- Comes from 辛い ('painful'), so it leans toward difficulty that causes the doer discomfort. にくい is the more neutral all-purpose 'hard to ~' when no such strain is implied.
See 〜づらい in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜づらい the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar.