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Why JLPT N1 learners mix up 不味い (まずい, “unappetising; unpleasant (taste appearance situation); ugly; unskilful; awkward; bungling; unwise; untime”) and いやらしい (いやらしい, “unpleasant, disgusting, indecent”).
Both describe a negative state. A learner might confuse the 'unpleasant taste or situation' of 不味い (mazui) with the 'indecent or disgusting' nature of いやらしい, as both express visceral or social aversion.
On JLPT N1, this pair shows up as a vocabulary meaning question. You see one word and pick its English equivalent from four options — one of which will be the other word in this pair, chosen as a distractor precisely because of the overlap.
Reading the explanation is step one. Targeted practice is what actually moves a confusion pair out of your weak list. Free, no signup needed to try.
Practice N1 confusion pairsSpot a mistake in this explanation? Email us. Explanations are AI-generated and human-reviewed; corrections welcome.