easy to understand

Meanings

1. 1phrasefixed phrase

   Simple and clear enough for someone to grasp without much effort.

   Grammar: Comes after a linking verb such as be, seem, or look: The instructions are easy to understand.

   Patterns

   • something is easy to understand
   • make something easy to understand
   • easy to understand for someone

   The teacher's explanation was easy to understand, even for beginners.

   They wrote the manual in plain language so it would be easy to understand.

   The diagram makes the whole process easy to understand.

2. 2adjectivebefore a noun

   Written or designed in a way that most people can follow easily.

   Grammar: Used with hyphens before a noun: an easy-to-understand guide. Without hyphens it would be a phrase after a verb.

   Patterns

   • an easy-to-understand guide
   • easy-to-understand instructions
   • easy-to-understand language

   The website offers an easy-to-understand summary of the new law.

   We need easy-to-understand labels on all the medicine bottles.

   Her easy-to-understand style has made the textbook popular with students.

Common combinations

make something easy to understand

The pictures make the story easy to understand.

clear and easy to understand

Please keep your answer clear and easy to understand.

easy to understand for beginners

This book is easy to understand for beginners.

an easy-to-understand explanation

She gave an easy-to-understand explanation of the theory.

Synonyms and how they differ

clear

Clear focuses on there being no confusion, while easy to understand stresses that little effort is needed.

simple

Simple suggests few parts or details; something can be simple yet still hard to understand if the idea is abstract.

accessible

Accessible is more formal and often means understandable to a wide audience, not just to one person.

straightforward

Straightforward means not complicated, but it can describe tasks as well as explanations.

Opposites

Word family

understand verb

To know the meaning of something or how it works.

understanding noun

Knowledge of a subject or sympathy for someone's situation.

understandable adjective

Able to be understood, or natural and reasonable.

understandably adverb

In a way that is easy to understand or forgive.

Commonly confused: easy to understand or easy to understanding?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “easy to understand”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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