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I found a sentence earlier containing the word 言いだしづら but I parsed it to 2 words and I found I did not know 言いだし so I looked it up and found 言いだす (which I know the meaning of), but I also found another site saying 言いだし is the same thing basically, but I don't know why there is a し. Is this a different word or a conjugation I forgot?

user3856370
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user38996
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    The difference is the same as that between 出し and 出す. 出す -> 出しづらい, 言い出す -> 言い出しづらい. – kaboc Jun 11 '20 at 14:20
  • Does this answer your question: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/42820/9831 – Chocolate Jun 11 '20 at 16:25

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言いだし is the continuative form (連用形) of 言いだす ([言]{い}い[出]{だ}す).

Examples:
dictionary form - continuative form
[言]{い}う - 言い
[出]{だ}す - 出し
言いだす - 言いだし
する - し
わかる - わかり

「[Continuative form of a verb] + づらい」 means "hard/difficult to [Verb]".
づらい comes from an i-adjective つらい ([辛]{つら}い), "painful, difficult, tough, hard". The つ gets voiced into づ due to [連濁]{れんだく}.

Examples:
言う + つらい → 言いづらい "hard to say"
言いだす + つらい → 言いだしづらい "hard to start talking / hard to speak out"
わかる + つらい → わかりづらい "hard to understand"
外出する + つらい → 外出しづらい "hard to go out"

Chocolate
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  • thank you! just a question, what do you mean by continuative form when i search for it all i come up with is the つて conjugation – user38996 Jun 12 '20 at 11:50
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    @user38996 You could try "the *i* form" or "ren'yōkei", as in [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugation#i_form), or "pre *masu* form", or "verb stem". – Chocolate Jun 13 '20 at 01:41