adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a difficult choice
▪
It was a very difficult choice for me.
a difficult concept
▪
Difficult concepts can sometimes be explained by diagrams or graphs.
a difficult journey
▪
It was a difficult journey, especially in the winter months.
a difficult problem
▪
Does the team have the skills to tackle these difficult problems?
a difficult/an awkward stage
▪
He was 13 and going through that awkward stage.
a difficult/awkward age (= used mainly about the time when people are teenagers )
▪
13 – 16 is often a difficult age.
a difficult/awkward position
▪
I was in the difficult position of having to choose between them.
a difficult/complex issue
▪
He was able to grasp complex issues quickly.
a difficult/complex subject (= very complicated )
▪
Immigration is a complex subject.
a difficult/hard/tough decision
▪
In the end I took the difficult decision to retire early.
a difficult/serious dilemma
▪
He was in a serious dilemma because neither option seemed very desirable.
a difficult/unfavourable climate
▪
The economic situation created an unfavourable climate for investment.
an easy/difficult child (= easy or difficult to deal with )
▪
Marcus was a very happy, easy child.
be difficult/hard to judge
▪
The economic results of the reforms are difficult to judge.
be hard/difficult to imagine
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It’s hard to imagine the suffering she must have gone through.
difficult circumstances
▪
Many teachers are doing a very good job under difficult circumstances.
difficult, if not impossible (= difficult, and perhaps impossible )
▪
Obtaining funding for the film will be difficult, if not impossible.
difficult
▪
The agreement is the result of two years of long and difficult negotiations.
difficult
▪
The task of selecting just five candidates is difficult.
difficult/easy to spot
▪
Drug addicts are fairly easy to spot.
difficult/hard
▪
Some of the questions in the last section were very difficult.
difficult/hard/easy etc to guess
▪
It’s hard to guess his age because he dyes his hair.
difficult/hard/impossible etc to credit
▪
We found his statement hard to credit.
difficult/impossible to quantify
▪
The damage caused to the tourist industry is difficult to quantify.
difficult/impossible/easy/possible etc to detect
difficult/painful
▪
She has had to make the difficult transition from child actor to adult star.
difficult/tricky
▪
This book will show you how to deal with difficult situations.
easy/difficult/hard etc to follow
▪
The plot is a little difficult to follow.
easy/difficult/simple etc to use
▪
Drop-down menus make the program very easy to use.
face an uncertain/difficult future
▪
The company is facing an uncertain future.
find it hard/easy/difficult etc (to do sth)
▪
Hyperactive children find it difficult to concentrate.
hard/difficult to pin down
▪
The flavour was hard to pin down.
hard/difficult to resist
▪
The temptation to follow them was hard to resist.
hard/difficult to stomach
▪
Rob found Cathy’s attitude hard to stomach.
it is difficult/hard to cope
▪
We were finding it difficult to cope financially.
it is difficult/hard/impossible to exaggerate sth (= used to say that something cannot be made to seem more important etc than it already is )
▪
It is difficult to exaggerate the strength of people’s feelings on this matter.
it is hard/difficult to fault sb/sth
▪
You might not like O'Donnel’s arrogance, but it’s hard to fault what he does on the field.
it is hard/difficult to overestimate sth (= used to emphasize that something is very important )
▪
It is hard to overestimate the effect the war has had on these children.
make sth difficult/easy/possible etc
▪
The use of computers has made it possible for more people to work from home.
make things worse/easier/difficult
▪
Measures to slow down traffic on the main street have actually made things worse.
of a personal/political/difficult etc nature
▪
The support being given is of a practical nature.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪
Make your windows as difficult to break in to as possible.
▪
Identifying such scars may prove as difficult as linking tsunami deposits unambiguously to impacts.
▪
The problem may not, however, be as difficult as it seems.
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To reconstruct his thought and rediscover its movement is as difficult as investigating his secretive life.
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It's not as difficult as I thought it would be.
▪
And looking at our own context is as difficult for us as it is for fish to look at water.
▪
Alex's task of dictating the pace was quite as difficult as Michael's of delivering the lines.
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It would have been as difficult to discover any resemblance between the two situations as between the appearance of the persons concerned.
extremely
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Goal conflicts make this socio-economic leap extremely difficult for any individual to absorb.
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A composite building of steel plus concrete is extremely difficult to achieve in New York City.
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There are grounds for arguing that learning hierarchies like this which are both progressive and universal are extremely difficult to find.
▪
It forces real interest rates into the stratosphere and makes rapid growth extremely difficult .
▪
When we find this extremely difficult , there are a few things we can do to make it easier.
▪
Yet many new entrepreneurs find it extremely difficult to ask anyone for money.
▪
Trading conditions in many countries were extremely difficult last year, but both spirits and beers increased their trading profits.
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One note of caution: Work inhibition is extremely difficult to diagnose.
how
▪
It's easy enough to say this: I know from experience how difficult it is in practice!
▪
He knew how difficult she would find breaking away from the life she had been living.
▪
New parents rarely anticipate just how difficult unequal parenting is on a marriage.
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It helps one understand how difficult it is just to eat, to pick things up or to dry your feet.
▪
I understand how difficult it may be for you to dare to dream.
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And it occurred to me that I neither knew how many the family owned nor how difficult mine would be to replace.
increasingly
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Ideas of Divine Right were, it is true, becoming increasingly difficult to justify in intellectual terms.
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As these examples suggest, it becomes increasingly difficult to disentangle royal and ducal retinues.
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Warm, affectionate moments may become less frequent and increasingly difficult to achieve.
▪
And it was true, she was finding breathing increasingly difficult , thanks to the wild commotion in her heart.
▪
And raising hard money became increasingly difficult as the campaign wore on.
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As demands crowd in on you it becomes increasingly difficult to keep things in perspective.
▪
Some are now developing exclusively for the IBM-compatible platform, making it increasingly difficult to find software for Apple machines.
more
▪
It will also be more difficult to bring in relatives and easier to expel immigrants.
▪
They become less effective and even more difficult when a patient suffers a relapse.
▪
When it comes to expanded memory on an 8086 you are correct in thinking that life is a bit more difficult .
▪
This has made our task if anything yet more difficult , punctuated by agonizing debates and times of distrust.
▪
They also made it more difficult for temporary residents or visitors to become permanent residents.
▪
In a world of shifting boundaries, vanishing borders, and proliferating frontiers, security is even more difficult to achieve.
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Whilst this is more difficult to remember, it involves less typing.
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Compromise, the essence of politics, becomes more difficult after one has staked out a position in public.
most
▪
I hope to show that the incompetence that is most difficult to correct is tightly coupled with skilfulness.
▪
The most difficult drug shipments to detect are those secreted in the container boxes of commercial ships.
▪
Small, immature goats suffer most; they find moving around in deep snow most difficult and demanding.
▪
She also pronounced the film among the most difficult to use.
▪
He was a most difficult man, and yet she hated him to think so ill of her.
▪
Some of the most difficult diagnostic problems may be caused by the person who functionally elaborates an underlying organic disease.
▪
That, however, though serious, is not the most difficult task to be faced in interpreting these issues.
▪
For many young people this is the most difficult problem that they have ever had to deal with in their lives.
often
▪
When confronted with a small garden for the first time, its often difficult to know what to do for the best.
▪
There are three characters called James in the New Testament, and it is often difficult to distinguish them in later legend.
▪
In practice, however, the precise boundaries of ministerial responsibility are often difficult to define.
▪
It is often difficult to distinguish the effects of low infections from malnutrition.
▪
Even teenagers, often difficult to entertain, rate it highly.
▪
Membership is gained consciously or unconsciously and it is often difficult to determine the time when a person becomes a member.
▪
It was often difficult to persuade able men to accept diplomatic posts in distant capitals.
particularly
▪
Finding the rodding arm in an inspection chamber fitted with an interceptor trap is particularly difficult .
▪
Deciding when this occurs is particularly difficult for the therapist.
▪
It also helps them anticipate situations that are particularly difficult .
▪
It was particularly difficult to remove from the corners.
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Younger players in particular, as well as less established players, may find it particularly difficult to resist such pressures.
▪
Calculations for transition metal species present particularly difficult problems.
▪
This concept of structure is particularly difficult to grasp because it appears not once but twice.
quite
▪
This is quite difficult to do unless you are sure you want to give up that last feed.
▪
We find it quite difficult to feel sorry for big-firm associates.
▪
Drawing three-dimensional objects is quite difficult , but for computers the task is almost as easy as drawing a two dimensional object.
▪
Wild hare, unfortunately, is quite difficult to find.
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It was quite difficult to believe that there could be any animation in them.
▪
Figuring out frontal lobe functions has been quite difficult .
▪
As the original barn was quite difficult to get to, I asked John Pennington if I could use his.
▪
The concept of ideal types remains controversial and quite difficult to grasp.
so
▪
I thought maybe I was just being selfish, it's so difficult to analyse your emotions.
▪
Why is it so difficult for my son to spend just a few hours a week doing homework?
▪
This does, however, prove so difficult in most cases that it is not recommended.
▪
Especially when the struggle is so difficult , and the behavior so enticing, pleasurable, and meaningful.
▪
The reason given usually was that oral work was so difficult to do.
▪
This results from the fact that it is so difficult to distinguish deterministic chaos from highly random behavior.
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That's why it's so difficult !
▪
We are extremely fortunate that such a devastating virus is so difficult to effectively transmit from person to person.
too
▪
The sticks wouldn't be too difficult to find, not here in the wood, especially after the gale.
▪
It should not be too difficult to improve on that, you might have thought.
▪
Whatever Sandy thinks of what I said, he apparently recognizes that to reverse field now would be too difficult .
▪
It should not be too difficult , she thought, to allow one of those buttons to become undone.
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Transportation was too difficult , the number of hours too high.
▪
He's very proud; it's too difficult for him to do anything about it now.
very
▪
It is very difficult to say.
▪
A.. Certainly if you had to rely on those two sources of income alone you would have a very difficult time.
▪
It is very difficult dealing with fractures and dislocations which have happened on fairly hard rock climbs.
▪
It is very difficult to contemplate going there with all that in one's mind.
▪
It is very difficult to say with certainty what they were at any particular moment.
▪
Arthritis can make movement not only painful but very difficult .
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They regulate the interpretation of behaviour and hence make it at least very difficult for evidence to count against them.
▪
Winning new business would be very difficult .
■ NOUN
decision
▪
Birkenhead said it was the most difficult decision since the evacuation of the Dardanelles, but that did not help much.
▪
It was the most difficult decision of my life.
▪
Now there's a handbook to help couples deal with making such difficult decisions .
▪
Goodwill can permit effective cooperation for purchasing of secondary care but goodwill is ephemeral when difficult decisions have to be made.
▪
Male speaker A very great man, who contributed to every area of politics and never avoided making difficult decisions .
▪
Paradoxically difficult decisions are more difficult to make in difficult times.
▪
It wouldn't, she promised, be a difficult decision .
▪
In the circumstances the latter was unlikely: he had not done so in May on an infinitely more difficult decision .
position
▪
The Commission was in a difficult position .
▪
But officials say they are in the difficult position of having to implement a law they do not like.
▪
Marian and Izz had seen Tess moving house with her family, and knew what a difficult position she was in.
▪
Later, they spoke for the first time of the difficult position they found themselves in over the past few days.
▪
The band is also in a difficult position .
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The need to target moderate independents has put Dole in a difficult position .
▪
Many girls in difficult positions resisted prostitution, whether formal or informal.
▪
It seems that many people find this a difficult position to adhere to in a serious way.
problem
▪
So without doubt one of the most important and difficult problems in cancer research is that of identifying the other mutations.
▪
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many studies were undertaken in hopes of solving the difficult problems of animal locomotion.
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Making contact with the families in the first instance was the most difficult problem .
▪
That fact poses some difficult problems for those of us trying to make sense of the news we are given.
▪
Differences of opinion are often the most difficult problem to resolve.
▪
Much of the joy typical of Great Groups seems to reflect the profound pleasure humans take in solving difficult problems .
▪
Hers is an honest response to a difficult problem .
▪
Team members may also participate in problem-solving task forces established to work on particularly difficult problems or those that cross team boundaries.
question
▪
This is perhaps the most difficult question one can answer.
▪
I prefaced it by saying that these were difficult questions which he was at liberty not to answer.
▪
One difficult question is what is the situation if the overseas trust went through a non-qualifying buy-back procedure?
▪
Practice interviewing with a friend who will ask you difficult questions .
▪
The second is the more difficult question .
▪
This is a difficult question but in practice few spreadsheets need more than 1 or 2 MBytes of expanded memory.
▪
But the most effective way of exploring this difficult question is not in abstract, supra-historical terms.
▪
I simply pose these difficult questions .
situation
▪
Ruth and I have lived, and the kids have lived, in an extremely difficult situation .
▪
But he was caught in a difficult situation , coming in at midseason with a losing record.
▪
In response to the difficult situation schools find themselves in, a critical and forward-looking approach to curriculum renewal was developed.
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There is time to make the best of a difficult situation .
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There are special circumstances, there are politically difficult situations , appeals must be made.
▪
Braun has dealt with difficult situations before.
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Increased apprehension in such a difficult situation increased tension. 3.
task
▪
It is, however, a very difficult task .
▪
It is not a difficult task as long as you first understand the way that your printer works.
▪
The most tedious and difficult task is emptying the pond.
▪
Justo now has the difficult task of having to imprison his own father.
▪
Observers say Secrett faces a difficult task at a time of falling income for the organisation.
▪
And it is still the most difficult task any of us faces.
▪
Now I suppose I shall have the difficult task of telling Donna.
▪
The profit-seeking firm faces the difficult task of searching for the appropriate profit-maximising output and profit margin.
thing
▪
Chapter 3 Volcanic eruptions are difficult things to classify.
▪
The most difficult thing for Brown was defending a policy in public that he opposed in private.
▪
It was surely the most difficult thing in the world to appear sincere when one's heart was breaking.
▪
There are difficult things going on here.
▪
I think colour is one of the most difficult things to use.
▪
The construction of musicals is a difficult thing that few are good at.
▪
Cars seem to be the most difficult thing to purchase on a cash basis.
▪
The most difficult thing afoot is to keep our problem child from blowing it in one fell swoop.
time
▪
Working through these difficult times is a challenge for all our staff who have maintained their integrity, application and cheerfulness.
▪
No matter how good things are, we cycle into difficult times .
▪
She deserves sympathy in these present difficult times .
▪
At Carville the staff had a difficult time convincing patients of an identity of interest.
▪
Ma Bell's difficult times were matched by the buoyant profits of her seven regional offspring.
▪
Western novels about women had a more difficult time finding a foothold.
▪
And, that even in difficult times , there is compassion.
▪
A.. Certainly if you had to rely on those two sources of income alone you would have a very difficult time .
times
▪
No matter how good things are, we cycle into difficult times .
▪
The church there is undergoing difficult times and badly needs our prayers.
▪
Moreover, in the difficult times that are coming, you will have to take a full and active part.
▪
Working through these difficult times is a challenge for all our staff who have maintained their integrity, application and cheerfulness.
▪
Adam knows that he and Seth have difficult times in store.
▪
She deserves sympathy in these present difficult times .
▪
I pray that this spirit will pull us through these difficult times .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bad/difficult/sticky/rough patch
▪
Even when they knew he was going through a bad patch they would continue to deliver dangerous back-passes to him.
▪
Every team goes through a bad patch .
▪
Evode has gone through a sticky patch .
▪
Having hit a bad patch , financially, I decided I must try for some paid work with my knitting machine.
▪
Ruefully, she recalled her pleasure at the way the book, after a difficult patch , had begun to develop.
▪
Sometimes I am a real power pack of efficiency; then I hit a bad patch .
▪
Talk about hitting a bad patch .
▪
The Royal Family is certainly going through a rough patch .
a difficult/hard/good etc one
▪
But what is temperament, and how do we define what is a good one ?
▪
I knew there was no sense in trying to do a better one .
▪
Maybe it was a crackpot theory, but it was a good one .
▪
Nevertheless, it was always clear that Schmidt's third term in office would prove a difficult one .
▪
Payno was gleeful, for his idea was a good one .
▪
The belief that hierarchical organizational structure makes for good business is a difficult one to give up.
▪
The Berlin Philharmonic as it exists today may be a happier orchestra, but it is in no way a better one .
▪
Then I became a lead project manager and, I have to say, I was a good one .
bad/difficult/hard etc enough
▪
Even a Patel, probably a Bhatt if I looked hard enough .
▪
It's bad enough trying to fly with unequal line lengths; having an asymmetric kite can be most frustrating!
▪
She identified the problem not as trying too hard to live up to a domestic ideal but as not trying hard enough .
▪
Since the cold war ended in 1988, they have worked hard enough to produce some kind of an economic miracle.
▪
That was going to be difficult enough anyway.
▪
The ties with the past difficult enough to sever already.
▪
This would be bad enough if California prisons were full of nothing but Charles Mansons.
it's difficult/hard to believe (that)
▪
Female speaker It's hard to believe it's happened.
▪
It's hard to believe another child could do such a thing.
▪
It's hard to believe just how dire it is.
▪
It's hard to believe Marie's got a husband.
▪
It's hard to believe now but I actually made do with hooks for a while!
▪
It's hard to believe that he started painting in World War Two and is still painting today.
▪
It's hard to believe , but we're fast approaching the dessert hour.
▪
The ideological points are still there but it's hard to believe that totalitarian regimentation could be so tight.
make life difficult/easier etc
▪
But this arbitrary division of the country has not made life easier for either the North or the South.
▪
Having to adopt the fast-track method made life difficult for all three.
▪
Jim was uninterested in learning the kind of ecclesial footwork that would have made life easier for himself and his parish.
▪
Latecomers, however, do make life difficult - and unnecessarily expensive.
▪
The lack of economic statistics has made life difficult for economists and money managers for the past few weeks.
▪
There's no greater pleasure than handing over money to a local supplier who helps make life easier.
▪
To make life easier in the future, will you be publishing an index?
▪
With the advent of electrics, journey times were to be halves, as well as making life easier for locomotive crews.
miles older/better/too difficult etc
technically possible/difficult/feasible etc
▪
Although it is already technically possible for network administrators to monitor Internet traffic, such tracking has been difficult to do.
▪
Berni came into this world on May 12 at 9: 07 a. m. It was a technically difficult delivery.
▪
FLEXthe name of both the machine and its language-was not technically feasible at the time.
▪
One expert achieved unwanted fame by stating, categorically, that it was no longer technically possible to build modern aircraft out of wood.
▪
Subsequent additions and amendments to software may be technically possible, but inadvisable because of subsequent upgrade issues.
▪
The members thought that it was technically feasible and, under the right conditions, could benefit the region.
▪
There is nothing technically difficult about this; if the computer can look one play ahead it can look 20.
▪
There was no question that a tunnel was technically feasible, but 1 wanted to know what the economics would be.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
a difficult job
▪
Campbell has the reputation of being difficult to work with.
▪
Heavy snow will mean difficult driving conditions in some areas.
▪
I'd like to thank the staff for working very hard in these difficult conditions.
▪
It's very difficult to find people who are willing to do the job.
▪
My mother's illness makes it difficult for her to walk.
▪
My wife and I have gone through some difficult times.
▪
Officials say they are in the difficult position of having to implement a law they strongly.
▪
Stop being difficult !
▪
That's a good question, but it's a difficult one to answer.
▪
The insects are so small that they are difficult to see without using a microscope.
▪
The reading exercise was very difficult for most of the children.
▪
Things at home have been very difficult since my father died.
▪
Until now, patients often found it difficult to get information about their rights.
▪
When Darren was a little boy, he was very difficult at times.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
According to industry officials, a new breed of digital phone transmits in computer code that is much more difficult to intercept.
▪
Being almost the colour of the rocks, the Harpies are difficult to spot before they move.
▪
Felipe takes me to the coast too but it is a bit difficult now that I can not see.
▪
In its good fortune, Sears may illustrate several keys to thriving in a difficult retail environment.
▪
More difficult would be patients with a deep seated psychological problem which would require more than three months' treatment.
▪
The difficulty with habits is that they are difficult to change.
▪
This is made more difficult by the speed at which new stores are now built.
▪
To be a member of more than two or three real teams at the same time is difficult .