My sensei said the difference is 易しい is easy (difficulty) but 簡単 is easy (simple).
I often see 易しい in video game difficulties but no 簡単.
but according to this website which I translated it roughly lol :
易しい means easy for everyone, just plain easy. Low difficulty.
簡単 means it is "simple" or easy but, only because it can be achieved in a short time (which brings it closer to "Simple" than "Easy". In my opinion).
please correct me if I'm wrong. thanks.
This came up when I was watching Japanese Ammo with Misa's series for Absolute Beginners. I believe she's a native Japanese speaker and she said to never use 易しい to mean "easy", because it's way too formal.
"If you use some textbooks, it says 易しい, but never use 易しい as "easy". It's just way, way too formal. If you want to sound native, use 簡単な, because 易しい can also mean "kind". And when Japanese people hear the word 易しい, we immediately think of 易しい as "kind"."
@Katagiri That is probably a useful rule of thumb for beginners, but "never" seems a bit extreme. This thesaurus entry compares the degree of appropriateness of 易しい, 簡単な, and 平易な in various contexts.
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/14553/meaning/m0u/%E6%98%93%E3%81%97%E3%81%84/
For instance in the phrase ～表現に改める, they mark 易しい表現に改める as natural, with a circle, and they mark 簡単な表現に改める as questionable, with a triangle. This means all natives do not agree whether 簡単な表現に改める is an appropriate usage or not.
To be fair, this is a thesaurus aimed at native speakers who are aiming to communicate precisely, and so it might be a distinction that is beyond the level a beginner non-native needs to be concerned about.
But I just wanted to point out that there's no reason to completely eliminate 易しい from your vocabulary. There are times when there are natives who do consider it more appropriate.
易しいvs簡単な
Hi!
Is there any remarkable difference between these two adjectives? If so, could anyone explain what it is? Or can they be used interchangeably?