difficile

difficult, hard

adjective dee-fee-SEEL Common

Usage Note

Difficile describes tasks, situations, or people who are hard to deal with. Applied to a person, it means 'demanding' or 'fussy' (un client difficile = a difficult client, un enfant difficile = a challenging child). The adverb difficilement means 'with difficulty', and the noun difficulté covers both difficulty and a specific obstacle.

Examples

"Cet exercice est vraiment difficile."

Natural Translation

This exercise is really difficult.

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