मुश्किल (mushkil)
adjective/noun
Mainly an adjective meaning 'difficult' and a feminine noun meaning 'difficulty, trouble' -- the two senses share the same word and are used together constantly, e.g. talking about a मुश्किल (mushkil) situation versus facing a मुश्किल (mushkil) itself.
Sense
1
:
difficult, hard
adjective
Synonyms: कठिन (kathin), दुष्कर (dushkar, literary, rare)
Frequency: high
Cultural Note: You'll hear मुश्किल है (mushkil hai) constantly in everyday Delhi speech as a stand-alone remark, roughly 'that's tough' or 'good luck with that,' often with a small head-shake or sigh -- it carries a resigned, sympathetic tone rather than sounding clinical like 'difficult' can in English.
Common Mistakes: 1) Learners often try to inflect मुश्किल (mushkil) like a regular -आ adjective; it is invariant and stays मुश्किल (mushkil) with masculine, feminine, singular, and plural nouns alike. 2) With काम (kaam) or बात (baat), Hindi often prefers the construction X करना मुश्किल है (X karnaa mushkil hai, 'it is difficult to do X') over trying to directly translate an English 'difficult thing.'
Sample Sentences:
यह सवाल बहुत मुश्किल है।
This question is very difficult.
(yah savaal bahut mushkil hai।)
इस शहर में घर ढूँढना मुश्किल है।
It's difficult to find a house in this city.
(is shahar men ghar dhoondhnaa mushkil hai।)
अरे, नौकरी छूट गई? मुश्किल है।
Oh, you lost your job? That's tough.
(are, naukrii chhoot gaii? mushkil hai।)
पिछले साल यह परीक्षा बहुत मुश्किल थी।
This exam was very difficult last year.
(pichhle saal yah pariikshaa bahut mushkil thii।)
अगर तुम बीच में बोलते रहे, तो बात समझना मुश्किल हो जाएगा।
If you keep interrupting, it will become difficult to understand the point.
(agar tum biich men bolte rahe, to baat samajhnaa mushkil ho jaaegaa।)
यह काम इतना मुश्किल न होता अगर तुम पहले बता देते।
This work wouldn't have been so difficult if you had told me earlier.
(yah kaam itnaa mushkil n hotaa agar tum pahle bataa dete।)
इतनी मुश्किल परियोजना को समय पर पूरा करना एक चुनौती थी।
Completing such a difficult project on time was a challenge.
(itnii mushkil pariyojnaa ko samay par pooraa karnaa ek chunautii thii।)
हो सकता है यह रास्ता थोड़ा मुश्किल हो, पर कोशिश करते रहो।
It's possible this path is a bit difficult, but keep trying.
(ho saktaa hai yah raastaa thodaa mushkil ho, par koshish karte raho।)
यार, ये गणित के सवाल तो बहुत ही मुश्किल हैं।
Dude, these math problems are really difficult.
(yaar, ye ganit ke savaal to bahut hii mushkil hain।)
बिना उसकी मदद के, यह समस्या हल करना मुश्किल रहा होगा।
Without his help, solving this problem must have been difficult.
(binaa uskii madad ke, yah samasyaa hal karnaa mushkil rahaa hogaa।)
समझौते की वजह से आगे की राह और मुश्किल बन गई थी।
Because of the compromise, the road ahead had become even more difficult.
(samjhaute kii vajah se aage kii raah aur mushkil ban gaii thii।)
Sense
2
:
difficulty, trouble, problem
noun, feminine
Synonyms: परेशानी (pareshaanii), दिक्कत (dikkat), तकलीफ़ (takliif)
Frequency: high
Cultural Note: मुश्किल से (mushkil se) is a very handy phrase meaning 'barely, with great effort,' as in मुश्किल से पहुँचा (mushkil se pahunchaa, 'I barely made it') -- it's one of those little adverbial idioms that instantly makes your Hindi sound more native than a literal word-for-word translation would.
Common Mistakes: 1) As a noun मुश्किल (mushkil) is feminine, so it takes feminine agreement in phrases like बड़ी मुश्किल (badii mushkil, 'a big difficulty') even though the adjective सense of the same word never inflects at all -- learners sometimes carry the invariance of the adjective over to the noun by mistake. 2) मुश्किल में होना (mushkil men honaa, 'to be in trouble') and मुश्किल से (mushkil se, 'with difficulty, barely') are set phrases worth learning as whole units rather than building word by word.
Sample Sentences:
मुझे इस सवाल में बहुत मुश्किल आ रही है।
I'm having a lot of difficulty with this question.
(mujhe is savaal men bahut mushkil aa rahii hai।)
हम मुश्किल से समय पर स्टेशन पहुँचे।
We barely made it to the station on time.
(ham mushkil se samay par steshan pahunche।)
उसे पैसों की मुश्किल हमेशा रहती है।
He always has money troubles.
(use paison kii mushkil hameshaa rahtii hai।)
अगर कोई मुश्किल आए तो मुझे फ़ौरन बताना।
If any difficulty comes up, tell me right away.
(agar koii mushkil aae to mujhe fauran bataanaa।)
इस परियोजना की मुश्किलों का समाधान अगली बैठक में किया जाएगा।
The difficulties of this project will be resolved in the next meeting.
(is pariyojnaa kii mushkilon kaa samaadhaan aglii baithak men kiyaa jaaegaa।)
अगर उसे थोड़ी मदद मिलती तो उसकी मुश्किल इतनी न बढ़ती।
If he had gotten a little help, his troubles wouldn't have grown so much.
(agar use thodii madad miltii to uskii mushkil itnii n badhtii।)
कृपया अपनी मुश्किल विस्तार से बताएँ।
Please describe your problem in detail.
(kripyaa apnii mushkil vistaar se bataaen।)
जीवन में मुश्किलें आती हैं, पर हिम्मत नहीं छोड़नी चाहिए।
Difficulties come in life, but one should not lose courage.
(jiivan men mushkilen aatii hain, par himmat nahiin chhodnii chaahie।)
टीम को मुश्किल का सामना बड़े धैर्य से करना पड़ा।
The team had to face the difficulty with great patience.
(tiim ko mushkil kaa saamnaa bade dhairy se karnaa padaa।)
बुढ़ापे में उसे चलने-फिरने में मुश्किल होने लगी थी।
In old age, she had started having difficulty moving around.
(budhaape men use chalne-phirne men mushkil hone lagii thii।)
मुश्किल से टिकट मिला, वरना हम यह शो देख ही नहीं पाते।
We got the ticket only with great effort, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to watch this show at all.
(mushkil se tikat milaa, varnaa ham yah sho dekh hii nahiin paate।)
Morphology
Adjective (invariant)
invariant:
मुश्किल
(mushkil)
Noun
(sg.f.direct):
मुश्किल
(mushkil)
(sg.f.oblique):
मुश्किल
(mushkil)
(pl.f.direct):
मुश्किलें
(mushkilen)
(pl.f.oblique):
मुश्किलों
(mushkilon)