Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

Hello everyone.

I learned today the word �difficultness� exists. What is the difference of meaning/nuance between �difficulty� and �difficultness�? I guess there are fairly strict restrictions on the use of �difficultness.�

Best regards,
fw

[lotus]

Hi fw,

The suffix -ness means "the state of" or "quality of."

I. Difficult (adjective) means "not easy" or "hard to do."
It was a difficult test.

II. Difficulty (noun) can mean a) "the state or quality of being difficult" or b) "struggles or hardship."

a) The students did not anticipate the difficulty (state of being difficult) of the test.

b) The students had difficulties (hardships) completing the test.

III. Difficultness is the state of being difficult. That means it can have the same definition as IIa.

The students did not anticipate the difficultness (state of being difficult) of the test.

So, it appears that difficulty and difficultness are interchangeable in the case of IIa. But, in the case of IIb, they are not interchageable.

So, you cannot say:
The students had difficulties (hardship) completing the test.

But, you cannot say:
The students had difficultness completing the test.

So, when difficulty is used as the definition of "struggles or hardship", it is not interchangeable with difficultness.
Or, difficultness can only be used to replace difficulty when the definition of difficulty is "the state or quality of being difficult."


--lotus

[fw]

Thanks for your detailed explanation, lotus.

It really helps.

fw

[lotus]

Your welcome fw,

Just to clarify a typo:

So, you [can] say:
The students had difficulties (hardship) completing the test.

But, you cannot say:
The students had difficultness completing the test.