壊(こわ)れやすい

こわれやすい
i-adjective
fragile; easily broken; delicate
descriptive
Conjugation
AffirmativeNegative
Present壊(こわ)れやすい壊(こわ)れやすくない
Past壊(こわ)れやすかった壊(こわ)れやすくなかった
て form壊(こわ)れやすくて壊(こわ)れやすくなくて
Adverbial壊(こわ)れやすく—
Conditional ば壊(こわ)れやすければ壊(こわ)れやすくなければ
Conditional たら壊(こわ)れやすかったら壊(こわ)れやすくなかったら
1. fragile; easily broken; delicate
Liable to break or be damaged, either physically or figuratively.
ガラスは壊(こわ)れやすい。
Glass is fragile.
Please carry fragile items carefully.
This machine is delicate and easily broken, so please be careful not to subject it to shocks.

Formed from 壊(こわ)れる (to break) + やすい (easy to). This is a productive grammatical pattern in Japanese where verb stem + やすい means "easy to do" or "prone to."

Common collocations

Usage

Often seen on packaging and shipping labels. The formal equivalent for labeling is 取扱注意(とりあつかいちゅうい) (handle with care) or ワレモノ注意(ちゅうい) (fragile — caution).

Similar words

  • もろい: brittle, fragile — emphasizes structural weakness
  • デリケートな: delicate — loanword, often for sensitive topics or skin
  • 脆弱(ぜいじゃく)な: vulnerable, fragile — formal, often used for systems or security