difficult

«difficult» in Mova's school dictionary: Hard to do, understand or deal with; needing a lot of… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (difficult, more difficult, most difficult)

meaning for a pupil

1) Hard to do, understand or deal with; needing a lot of effort or skill. tree →

2) Full of problems or worries (a difficult time). tree →

3) (of a person) Not easy to please or get on with; unhelpful. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used everywhere: difficult questions, difficult words, difficult times. In maths and exams, «the difficult part» needs more steps. In stories, a difficult character causes trouble. Phrases: «find it difficult to», «make life difficult», «difficult to say», «a difficult decision».

examples

• This puzzle is very difficult. tree →
• I find it difficult to wake up early. tree →
• The last question was the most difficult. tree →
• It was a difficult time for the family. tree →
• The toddler is being difficult today. tree →
• It's difficult to say who will win. tree →
• Climbing the mountain was difficult but fun. tree →
• Its dialect renders it somewhat difficult to read. tree →

note

Comparisons use «more» and «most»: more difficult, NOT «difficulter». Opposite: easy, simple. Noun «difficulty». Synonyms: hard, tough, tricky (informal). In everyday speech «hard» is more common.

In the corpora

• "The terrible twos" means the difficult stage of a toddler around age two.
• "Challenging" (jargon) means bad or very difficult.
• "A real character" is a polite way to call someone odd, unusual or difficult.
• Ratings are about content such as violence, blood, fear and bad language, not about how difficult a game is.
• Perseverance means keeping going when things are difficult.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «difficult» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.