信(しん)じ難(がた)い

しんじがたい
i-adjective
hard to believe; incredible; unbelievable
formalabstract
Conjugation
AffirmativeNegative
Present信(しん)じ難(がた)い信(しん)じ難(がた)くない
Past信(しん)じ難(がた)かった信(しん)じ難(がた)くなかった
て form信(しん)じ難(がた)くて信(しん)じ難(がた)くなくて
Adverbial信(しん)じ難(がた)く—
Conditional ば信(しん)じ難(がた)ければ信(しん)じ難(がた)くなければ
Conditional たら信(しん)じ難(がた)かったら信(しん)じ難(がた)くなかったら
1. hard to believe; incredible; unbelievable
So surprising, extreme, or extraordinary that it is difficult to accept as true.
信(しん)じ難(がた)い話(はなし)だ。
That's a hard-to-believe story.
信(しん)じ難(がた)いことに、彼(かれ)は無傷(むきず)だった。
Incredibly, he was unharmed.
これほど短期間(たんきかん)で成功(せいこう)するとは、信(しん)じ難(がた)い結果(けっか)だ。
Succeeding in such a short time is an unbelievable result.

Formed from 信(しん)じる (to believe) + 難(がた)い (difficult to ~). The suffix ～難(がた)い attaches to verb stems to express difficulty or impossibility.

Usage

The ～難(がた)い pattern is productive in Japanese: 理解(りかい)し難(がた)い (hard to understand), 許(ゆる)し難(がた)い (hard to forgive). 信(しん)じ難(がた)い is one of the most commonly used combinations. It has a slightly more formal and literary tone than 信(しん)じられない.

Common collocations

  • 信(しん)じ難(がた)い話(はなし) — an unbelievable story
  • 信(しん)じ難(がた)い結果(けっか) — an incredible result
  • 信(しん)じ難(がた)いことに — incredibly; unbelievably

Similar words

Related Words

Compare: 耐(た)え難(がた)い (unbearable)
general
Added 2026.3.26 20:48 · Revised 2026.9.2 13:01
19500/19679_shinjigatai