面倒くさい
めんどくさい
mendokusai
= troublesome, a hassle, too much bother to deal with
面倒くさい is the great sigh of Japanese, the word for anything that is just too much of a hassle to bother with, from filling out forms to, on a bad day, getting off the couch at all.
面倒くさい describes something tiresome, bothersome, or not worth the effort it would take. It expresses the feeling of can’t be bothered toward chores, paperwork, complicated procedures, or even people who are high-maintenance. The casual spoken form often shortens to めんどくさい or even めんどい. It is an everyday complaint, ranging from mild reluctance to genuine dread of a tedious task.
Match the register: 面倒くさい is already casual, and the clipped めんどい is very informal slang, so avoid both in polite settings, where 大変です or お手数 (trouble, effort) fit better. Note 面倒 alone can be neutral or even caring (面倒を見る, to take care of), so it is the くさい that pushes the word toward annoyed reluctance.
面倒 means trouble or care (as in 面倒を見る, to look after someone), and the suffix くさい literally means smelly but here works as an intensifier meaning -ish or reeking of, so 面倒くさい is roughly stinking of trouble. This くさい attaches to other words too, as in 古くさい (old-fashioned), always adding a negative, exasperated flavor.
Everyday use
雨の中、わざわざ買い物に行くのは面倒くさいな。
Ame no naka, wazawaza kaimono ni iku no wa mendokusai na.
Going out shopping in the rain on purpose is such a hassle.
Casual / Social Media
返信考えるのめんどくさいから、とりあえずスタンプだけ送った。
Henshin kangaeru no mendokusai kara, toriaezu sutanpu dake okutta.
Thinking up a reply was too much bother, so I just sent a sticker for now.
Formal / Cultural context
手続きが煩雑で面倒くさいという利用者の声を受け、簡素化が進められた。
Tetsuzuki ga hanzatsu de mendokusai to iu riyousha no koe wo uke, kansoka ga susumerareta.
Responding to users who found the procedure complicated and bothersome, simplification was carried out.
面倒くさい is one of the most-used everyday complaints in Japanese, and its frequency says something about a culture with many small procedures, courtesies, and proper ways of doing things. The more steps and formalities a task involves, the more readily it earns the label, so the word is a kind of pressure valve for the effort that careful, polite routines can demand.
The slangy short forms めんどくさい and めんどい are especially common among young people and in casual texting, where they convey a relatable, low-energy mood. There is even a humorous self-aware quality to it: declaring something 面倒くさい while still, often, going on to do it anyway. For learners, the word is a natural, very human piece of vocabulary that instantly makes casual conversation sound more real.