muy difícil
/mui difiθil/from spelling rules
The English phrase 'very hard' is translated into Spanish as muy difícil.
If you want to say 'very complicated', you can use Muy complicado and for 'extremely arduous', you can use Sumamente arduo.
Which one should you use?
Use muy difícil for abstract difficulty and muy duro for physical hardness or toughness.
How does it change in a sentence?
To say something is 'very hard to [do]', use the structure muy difícil de followed by the infinitive verb.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Do not use muy duro to mean a difficult task. While English speakers often make this mistake, muy duro usually refers to physical hardness or a person being harsh/tough.
Did you know?
- In colloquial Spanish, people might say está cañón instead of muy difícil to describe something that is extremely hard to achieve.
- The English word 'difficult' and the Spanish word difícil are distant linguistic cousins, both tracing back to the Latin 'facilis', meaning 'easy'.
- Although muy difícil is the standard, some dialects use bien difícil to mean 'very hard', using bien as an intensifier rather than as 'well'.
Examples in context
- Es muy difícil complacerla.She's very hard to please.This example shows how to use muy difícil to describe a person who is hard to please.Tatoeba #7975741 by helq, translation #1646635 by Spamster
- Hoy día es muy difícil encontrar eso.It's very hard to find that today.This example uses muy difícil to describe the difficulty of finding something today.Tatoeba #2267490 by cueyayotl, translation #2267489 by _undertoad
- Esa palabra es muy difícil de traducir.That word is very hard to translate.This example demonstrates using muy difícil to describe a word that is hard to translate.Tatoeba #1068363 by hayastan, translation #664064 by Zifre
- Este ejercicio es muy difícil.This exercise is very hard.
- La prueba fue muy difícil de entender.The test was very hard to understand.
- Resolver este problema es sumamente difícil.Solving this problem is extremely hard.
- ¡Este juego es muy difícil!This game is very hard!
- Este examen está requetedifícil, no creo que lo logre.This exam is really hard, I don't think I'll pass.
- ¡La tarea de matemáticas de ayer fue requetedifícil!Yesterday's math homework was really hard!
- 24 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Daniel and María are discussing a chemistry exam.
- DanielEl examen de química fue muy difícil.The chemistry exam was very hard.
- MaríaSí, yo no pude terminar la última parte.Yes, I couldn't finish the last part.
- Daniel¿Tú crees que reprobamos?Do you think we failed?
- MaríaNo lo sé, pero fue muy difícil para todos.I don't know, but it was very hard for everyone.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries difícil, muy, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
