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11
苦手

Hard To Deal With

Meaning

Hard To Deal With, Weak Point, Poor At, Not Very Good At, Bad At

Word Type

noun, な adjective

Explanation

A "suffering hand" is a little misleading. Think more in terms of the words 苦い (bitter) and 手 (person... remember how that happens sometimes?). Now think of this word like you're bitter about having to work with someone. Why? Because they are extremely hard to deal with.

Reading

にがて

Explanation

The reading is that of 苦い (にがい) plus regular old 手 (て). Remember, this is your bitter person, the person who's "hard to deal with." So, it uses the strange にがい reading.

Context

Patterns of Use

Common Word Combinations

  • 電話が苦手

    not good on the phone

    会話が苦手

    not good at conversation

    コミュニケーションが苦手

    not good at communicating

  • 苦手な物

    things one does not like

    苦手な事

    things one is not good at

    苦手な人

    someone who is hard to deal with, people who are not good at something

  • 苦手になる

    to become bad at, to come to dislike

    苦手に思う

    to consider to be a weak point

    苦手に見える

    to look like one is not good at something

Context Sentences

セロリが苦手です。

I'm not a big fan of celery.

あのアイドル、歌が苦手なのが欠点なんだよな。

The drawback about that idol is that she is not a good singer.

うちの犬がなんでお前にばっかり吠えるかって？正直言って、お前のことが苦手なんだよ。

Why does my dog ​​bark only at you? To be honest, you are not his favorite.

Kanji Composition