"difficult, hard" in seven languages
Meaningdifficult, hard
Spanish
difícil
/diˈfiθil/
learned
French
difficile
/difisil/
learned
Italian
difficile
/difˈfitʃile/
learned
Portuguese
difícil
/dʒiˈfisiw/
learned
Romanian
greu
/grew/
other source · Latin GRAVEM 'heavy' (in a spoken variant with e)
fem.: grea
Greu means both 'difficult' and 'heavy'.
Catalan
difícil
/diˈfisil/
learned
English
difficult
/ˈdɪfɪkəlt/
from Latin/French · Latin (back-formed from difficulty)
English → Italiandifficult, harddifficileCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
DIFFICILEM‘not doable (DIS- + FACILIS)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Learned in all three, and simply 'not-easy' in Latin. English difficult is a back-formation from the older noun difficulty.
English relatives: difficulty, difficult
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esEl italiano no es difícil.
- frL'italien n'est pas difficile.
- itL'italiano non è difficile.
- ptItaliano não é difícil.
- roItaliana nu e grea.
- caL'italià no és difícil.
- enItalian isn't difficult.