Using やすい and にくい

The suffixes やすい and にくい can be used to express that a verb is "easy to do" or "difficult to do." The suffix is added to the verb stem, and from there the word conjugates like an i-adjective.

Note that やすい and にくい are generally used to describe the psychological ease or difficulty of the action being performed, rather than the "physical or statistical success rate." This should help to differentiate between using にくい and 難しい.

最近シュウとしゃべりやすい。
Lately, it's easy to chat with Shuu.

お母さんの車は運転しやすかった。
Your mom's car was easy to drive.

毎日メイシーズ を勤めにくい。
Working for Macy's every day is difficult.

去年皆にプレゼントを買いにくかった。
It was difficult to buy presents for everyone last year.

Sometimes a place or an item can be the subject of these sentences. Genki has a couple example sentences that make use of this grammar in a way that leaves the literal translation sounding a bit awkward.

この町はとても住みやすいです。
This town is quite livable.

このグラスは飲みにくいです。
This glass is hard to drink from.