Is it 'dificil de' or just 'dificil' ?

Question

Which is correct? If I want to say, for example, "It's difficult to speak Spanish"

Es dificil de hablar Español

or

Es dificil hablar Español

Or another example: "I think it's difficult to prepare tamales."

Creo que es dificil preparar tamales or Creo que es dificil de preparar tamales

Answer 1

First, difícil is spelled with an accent.

It can be used both ways, depending on sentence structure. From this site,

1. difficult (complicado)

   • va a ser difícil encontrar un sitio abierto a estas horas -> it's going to be difficult o hard to find anywhere that's open at this time
   • difícil de hacer -> difficult to do
   • se me hace difícil acostumbrarme a madrugar -> I can't get used to getting up early
   • no me lo pongas difícil -> don't make things difficult o hard for me
   • tiene muy difícil encontrar trabajo -> it's very difficult o hard for him to find work

2. unlikely (improbable)

   • es difícil que ganen -> they are unlikely to win

3. difficult, awkward (rebelde)

   • es un niño muy difícil -> he's a very awkward o difficult child
   • tener un carácter difícil -> to be an awkward person, to be difficult to get on with

Es dificil colocar un acento cuando uno no entiende bien el uso de la mapa de caracteres u otros metodos. - geofc, May 4, 2010

Answer 2

De is for a specific item, like a book or a person. Some verbs use de and others don't. I don't think preparar uses it. Es difícil hablar Español (not specific I think?). Es difícil de entender lo que dices a veces.

Answer 3

Well, all grammar aside, just about every time I use difícil I use it with an infinitive verb, just as you did in your first example. That's the way it feels 'right' to me, at least in most cases. In the third example below, the object (español) has been moved to the beginning of the sentence, so it does 'feel' right.

How do these feel?

• Es difícil para me aprender español. (for me, it's difficult)
• Es difícil aprender español. (generally speaking, it's difficult)
• El español es difícil de aprender. (In this construction, I think it's proper to use 'de aprender'.

Hate to say it but first two sound like word for word from English. Only time I would lead with "es dificil" is as a complete sentence. - geofc, May 4, 2010

Answer 4

OK, so ... it depends. Thanks for the good points.

With my fairly weak Spanish, both of the following to me feel right. But again, I could be totally wrong.

Es muy dificil aprender Espanol

Espanol es muy dificil de aprender