にくい details
write + hard to …
kaki nikui
hard to …; resistant to
meaning: be hard to write
この瓶の蓋、固くて開けにくいんだけど。
kono bin no futa, katakute ake nikui n da kedo.
The lid on this jar is so stiff it is hard to open. casual
この道は街灯が少なくて、夜は歩きにくい。
kono michi wa gaitou ga sukunakute, yoru wa aruki nikui.
This street has few streetlights and is hard to walk along at night. neutral
- past
- polite
- negative
Examples
hard to do; doesn't … easily — the action resists whoever or whatever attempts it
この瓶の蓋、固くて開けにくいんだけど。
kono bin no futa, katakute akenikui n da kedo.
The lid on this jar is so stiff it is hard to open. casual
この道は街灯が少なくて、夜は歩きにくい。
kono michi wa gaitou ga sukunakute, yoru wa arukinikui.
This street has few streetlights and is hard to walk along at night. neutral
大変申し上げにくいのですが、今回の企画は見送らせていただきます。
taihen moushiagenikui no desu ga, konkai no kikaku wa miokurasete itadakimasu.
This is very difficult for me to say, but we will be passing on this proposal. formal
Formation
{V-masu-stem}にくいattaches to ます-stem
Notes
Related patterns
Similar
Mirror-image riders on the same masu-stem slot, both conjugating as i-adjectives — swap やすい for にくい and ease flips to resistance with no other change, 割れやすいグラス versus 割れにくいグラス.
Lookalikes
飲みにくい and 飲みすぎる share the stem but split grammatically — にくい builds an adjective judging inherent difficulty, すぎる a verb reporting an actual excess event; にくい never asserts that anything happened.