How to Say "difficulty" in Spanish
The most common Spanish word for “difficulty” is “dificultad” — use this word when referring to the inherent quality of something being hard to do, understand, or overcome.
dificultad
dee-fee-kool-TAHDdifi-kulˈtað
Examples
El camino a la cima de la montaña presentaba mucha dificultad.
The path to the mountain top presented a lot of difficulty.
El examen tenía mucha dificultad.
The exam was very difficult (had a lot of difficulty).
Leemos libros con diferentes niveles de dificultad.
We read books with different levels of difficulty.
The '-dad' Rule
Most Spanish words that end in '-dad' are feminine. This means you should use 'la' or 'una' with them (la dificultad).
Making it Plural
To talk about more than one, simply add '-es' to the end: 'las dificultades'.
Using the wrong gender
Mistake: “el dificultad”
Correction: la dificultad (words ending in -dad are almost always feminine).
complicación
Examples
Tuvimos una complicación inesperada con la reserva del hotel.
We had an unexpected complication with the hotel reservation.
tela
TAY-lahˈtela
Examples
¡Vaya tela! No me esperaba que la mudanza fuera tan complicada.
Wow, what a mess! I didn't expect the move to be so complicated.
¡Vaya tela! No esperaba que la presentación fuera tan mala.
Wow, what a mess/disappointment! I didn't expect the presentation to be so bad.
Hay mucha tela que cortar en este tema.
There is a lot of ground/work to cover on this topic.
Idiomatic Use
This meaning almost always appears in fixed phrases like '¡Vaya tela!' or 'Mucha tela que cortar.' Do not try to use 'tela' by itself to mean 'problem'.
General vs. Specific Difficulty
Related Translations
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