{"id":4605,"date":"2011-07-13T00:02:10","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T00:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2019-01-25T17:45:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T22:45:47","slug":"common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Errors in English: Difficult or Difficulty?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Don\u2019t say:<\/span> \u201cI have difficulty to wake up early.\u201d<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Say:<\/span> \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for me to wake up early.\u201d<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Or:<\/span> \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to wake up early.\u201d<br \/>\n(more informal, more common)<\/h3>\n<p>In spoken English, the word <strong>hard<\/strong> is frequently used instead of \u201cdifficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The phrase \u201cI have difficulty\u201d can be used before a noun, and the phrase \u201cIt\u2019s difficult\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0hard\u201d is used before a verb:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have difficulty with grammar. \/ I have a hard time with grammar.<br \/>\n(grammar = noun)<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s difficult for me to understand English. \/ It\u2019s hard for me to understand English.<br \/>\n(remember = verb)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Clear up your doubts about confusing words&#8230; and use English more confidently!<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-10529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\" alt=\"600+ Confusing English Words Explained\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-772x1024.png 772w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Click here to learn more about this e-book<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/center><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t say: \u201cI have difficulty to wake up early.\u201d Say: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for me to wake up early.\u201d Or: \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to wake up early.\u201d (more informal, more common) In spoken English, the word hard is frequently used instead of \u201cdifficult.\u201d The phrase \u201cI have difficulty\u201d can be used before a noun, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confusing-words-2","category-grammar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Common Errors in English: Difficult or Difficulty? - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don\u2019t say: \u201cI have difficulty to wake up early.\u201d Say: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for me to wake up early.\u201d Or: \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to wake up early.\u201d (more informal,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Common Errors in English: Difficult or Difficulty?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Don\u2019t say: \u201cI have difficulty to wake up early.\u201d Say: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for me to wake up early.\u201d Or: \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to wake up early.\u201d (more informal,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Espresso English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-13T00:02:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-25T22:45:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shayna Oliveira\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#\/schema\/person\/b92f17848e26e2ccdb617df724d13300\"},\"headline\":\"Common Errors in English: Difficult or Difficulty?\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-13T00:02:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-25T22:45:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/\"},\"wordCount\":132,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Confusing Words\",\"Grammar\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-difficult-or-difficulty\/\",\"name\":\"Common Errors in English: Difficult or Difficulty? 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