The differences between ～がたい、〜にくい、〜づらい?

Question

I was wondering what the differences are between these three: ～がたい、〜にくい、〜づらい They all seem to be some sort of variant of "Hard to do ~". But it seems they are used with different verbs and/or imply slightly different things. However, I'm not sure on what these are. Questions: 1) When should you use one of these over the others. For example, when should you use ~がたい over ～にくい and ～づらい 2) What is the difference (and are all 3 acceptable?) between: 1. わかりがたい 2. わかりにくい 3. わかりづらい

Answer 1

The most common way to express "hard to do" is ～にくい. It suggests that there are some obstacles that make it difficult for the doer to perform the action. You can use it with volitional and non-volitional verbs. *If you can control whether or not to perform the action (食べる), the verb is a volitional verb. If not (迷う), the verb is a non-volitional verb.

               • この魚は骨が多すぎて食べにくい。

               • 先に地図で調べておくと、道に迷いにくい。

～づらい is used together with a volitional verb, and it means it's hard to carry out the action because the act of doing the action gives the doer つらいこと (hardship), either physically or mentally.

               • この靴はヒールが高くて歩きづらい。

               • 母が心配するかもしれないので言いづらい。

～がたい is used together with a volitional verb when it's almost impossible to do the action due to all the condition/circumstance/situation even though you want to do so, while ～にくい and ～づらい are used in the situation where it's difficult but still doable. It's not appropriate to use ～がたい when some emotional aspects/dilemma (you want to do but it's impossible) are not involved.

               • 50年前よりよくなったが、人種差別が完全になくなったとは言いがたい。

               • (間違い)この容器は燃えがたい。*The verb is non-volitional.

               • (間違い)この靴はヒールが高くて歩きがたい。The reason of difficulty is not based on the emotion/dilemma.