～やすい
easy to do
～やすい attaches to the ます-stem of a verb (the form before ます) and says that the action is easy to do. The result behaves like a normal い-adjective, so it can become past (読みやすかった), negative (読みやすくない), and so on.
For English speakers it maps to “easy to ...”. Its opposite is ～にくい (“hard to ...”), which attaches in exactly the same way.
1. An action that is easy to perform
Use ～やすい to describe something that people can do without difficulty.
この本は読みやすい。
“This book is easy to read.”
- この = this
- 本（ほん）= book
- は = topic marker
- 読みやすい（よみやすい）= easy to read
2. Something that happens easily
～やすい can also mean that something tends to happen, even when nobody is doing it on purpose.
冬は風邪をひきやすい。
“In winter, you catch colds easily.”
- 冬（ふゆ）= winter
- は = topic marker
- 風邪（かぜ）= a cold
- を = object marker
- ひきやすい = easy to catch, tend to catch
How to form it
Verb ます-stem + やすい
- 読む（よむ）= to read → 読みやすい（よみやすい）= easy to read
- 食べる（たべる）= to eat → 食べやすい（たべやすい）= easy to eat
- 分かる（わかる）= to understand → 分かりやすい（わかりやすい）= easy to understand
Key idea
～やすい turns a verb into an adjective that rates the action: low effort, or likely to happen. If it is hard instead of easy, swap in ～にくい.
Other N4 grammar
Updated .