彼はその問題を解こうとしたが、とても難しいことがわかった。

he; him; his; boyfriend

topic marker particle; indicates contrast with another option (stated or unstated); adds emphasis

that (something or someone distant from the speaker, close to the listener; actions of the listener, or ideas expressed or understood by the listener); the; um...; er...; uh...

question (e.g. on a test); problem; problem (e.g. societal, political); question; issue; subject (e.g. of research); case; matter; question (i.e. doubt); public discussion; controversy; trouble; problem; inconvenience; difficulty

indicates direct object of action; indicates subject of causative expression; indicates an area traversed; indicates time (period) over which action takes place; indicates point of departure or separation of action; indicates object of desire, like, hate, etc.

to untie; to unfasten; to unwrap; to undo; to unbind; to unpack; to unsew; to unstitch; to solve; to work out; to answer; to dispel (misunderstanding, etc.); to clear up; to remove (suspicion); to appease; to dissolve (a contract); to cancel; to remove (a prohibition); to lift (a ban); to raise (a siege); to release (from duty); to relieve; to dismiss; to comb (out); to card; to untangle (hair)

if; when; and; with; particle used for quoting (with speech, thoughts, etc.); quoting particle; promoted pawn; indicates question (sentence end)

to do; to cause to become; to make (into); to turn (into); to serve as; to act as; to work as; to wear (clothes, a facial expression, etc.); to judge as being; to view as being; to think of as; to treat as; to use as; to decide on; to choose; to be sensed (of a smell, noise, etc.); to be (in a state, condition, etc.); to be worth; to cost; to pass (of time); to elapse; verbalizing suffix (applies to nouns noted in this dictionary with the part of speech "vs"); creates a humble verb (after a noun prefixed with "o" or "go"); to be just about to; to be just starting to; to try to; to attempt to

indicates sentence subject (occasionally object); indicates possessive (esp. in literary expressions); but; however; still; and

very; awfully; exceedingly; (not) at all; by no means; simply (cannot)

difficult; hard; troublesome; complicated; serious (disease, problem, etc.); fussy; particular; fastidious; hard to please; displeased; gloomy; glum; sullen; serious (look); dirty; unclean; filthy; detestable; unpleasant; uncomfortable; creepy; spooky

thing; matter; incident; occurrence; event; something serious; trouble; crisis; circumstances; situation; state of affairs; work; business; affair; after an inflectable word, creates a noun phrase indicating something the speaker does not feel close to; nominalizing suffix; pretending to ...; playing make-believe ...; alias; aka; nickname; alternative name; also known as

to understand; to comprehend; to grasp; to see; to get; to follow; to become clear; to be known; to be discovered; to be realized; to be realised; to be found out