速く vs 速くて

[Shavone]

im utterly confused over 速く & 速くて。 Hope to get some help here.

Got this question in one of my homework. I meant to write: "It is difficult to speak Japanese in a fast speed." And so, I wrote: 日本語は速く話し難いです。But when I got my homework back, my 先生 wrote that it should be: 日本語は速くて話し難いです。

て　is added to 速く & I have no clue why. I thought to connect い-adj to another verb/adj, we just have to drop い & add く ?

[Psy]

I can see where you're getting confused here. You're forgetting that while 「話しにくい」is indeed a conjugation of a verb, the conjugation itself functions as an adjective. Since you were using the adjectives 速い (fast) and 話しにくい (hard to speak), to join them you'd naturally need 速くて. Literally speaking, the teacher thought you were wanting to say "Japanese is fast and difficult to speak," not "It is difficult to speak Japanese quickly," which might go along the lines of 「日本語を速く話すのは難しいです。」Remember, the point is that 話しにくい is not a verb.

Hope that helped-- if not let me know!

[Shavone]

Thx Psy, i'm alitte enlightened now. So, does it mean that 速い = fast & 速くて = being fast?

I do remember that to connect 2 sentences together for い-adj, we have to drop い & add くて。 For eg: この部屋はやすくて、大きいです。

so it wrks the same way here?

[Bucko]

速い is the adjective 'fast', but you use 速くて when you're joining it with other adjectives. Think of 速くて as meaning 'fast AND...' So it'd be something like:

速くて赤い車です。 = It's a a fast (and) red car.
The two adjectives here are fast 速い and red 赤い.

[Shavone]

Bucko: yup! thx! that i understand. but what i meant in that sentence is that "It is difficult to speak Japanese quickly (in a fast speed)" & not "Japanese is fast & difficult to speak."

And so I wrote: 日本語は速く話し難いです。But when I got my homework back, my 先生 wrote that it should be: 日本語は速くて話し難いです。

日本語は速くて話し難いです。 --> Doesn't this sentence mean Japanese is fast & difficult to speak?

gee! im more & more confused nw. >_<

[Bucko]

Ah I see,

For 'it is difficult to speak Japanese quickly' I'd say something like:
日本語で速く話すのは難しいです, lit. speaking Japanaese quickly is difficult
or
速い日本語は話しにくいです, lit. fast Japanese is difficult to speak

Although I can't guarantee that either of these are natural sounding.

Are you familiar with the i-verb+nikui and i-verb+yasui forms? They mean "hard to do" and "easy to do".

このビールは飲みやすいです = this beer is easy to drink

[seanolan]

Bucko: yup! thx! that i understand. but what i meant in that sentence is that "It is difficult to speak Japanese quickly (in a fast speed)" & not "Japanese is fast & difficult to speak."

And so I wrote: 日本語は速く話し難いです。But when I got my homework back, my 先生 wrote that it should be: 日本語は速くて話し難いです。

日本語は速くて話し難いです。 --> Doesn't this sentence mean Japanese is fast & difficult to speak?

gee! im more & more confused nw. >_<

Someone who knows better than me, correct me if I am wrong here. The previous sentence translates as "as for Japanese, it is quick and hard to speak" but putting the "は" after 話す (see below) changes it to "as for speaking Japanese quickly, it is difficult."

日本語を速く話すのは難しいです。

I think your teacher was confused because when you places は after 日本語, you indicated that Japanese was the topic, and not "speaking".

Sean

[Bucko]

Someone who knows better than me, correct me if I am wrong here. The previous sentence translates as "as for Japanese, it is quick and hard to speak"

I agree with you, 話し難い is a single adjective meaning 'hard to speak'. Btw, 話し難い is pronounced はなしにくい for anyone that didn't know, not はなしむずかしい. See my last post for more details.

[Shavone]

thx Bucko & sean. i'm getting a clearer picture nw.

yup, i'm familiar with stem of ます-form + 易い or 難い. in fact, the hmewrk i did was for that particular topic. actually, what i was supposed to do is to complete this given sentence using .....易い &　難い。

Q: 日本語は__________________________ 。

& so i filled it as: 日本語は速く話し難いです。 i shld've just made things easier for myself & said 日本語は勉強し難いです。 hahaha! which is true for my case now...

[Bueller_007]

Someone who knows better than me, correct me if I am wrong here. The previous sentence translates as "as for Japanese, it is quick and hard to speak"

I agree with you, 話し難い is a single adjective meaning 'hard to speak'. Btw, 話し難い is pronounced はなしにくい for anyone that didn't know, not はなしむずかしい. See my last post for more details.

The 難い is almost always written in kana only, so 話しにくい is much, much, much more common than 話し難い. Probably because 難い can also be read as がたい.

[Shavone]

oops! i hope i haven't made everyone too confused. im referring to にくい (hard to do) & やすい (easy to do) here.

[Psy]

Nah, not at all. Technically 話し難い is a proper spelling, it's just pretty uncommon in everyday writing. It's easy to tell from context what you meant.

[seanolan]

Perhaps "速い日本語は話しにくいです。" would have been more correct, modifying "Japanese" with "quick" as an adjective rather than "speaking" with an adverb, and still allowed the use of "~しにくい"? I can't see any way to clearly modify "話しにくい" with an adverb like "quick" without the ambiguity of your teacher's corrected sentence. (ie: "quick and" instead of "quickly".)

Sean

[Bueller_007]

To throw in my own two cents, I'd probably say:
日本語は早口だったら聞き取れないです。
or
日本語は早口だったらわからないです。