Understanding 「難しいのと簡単なやつ」

Question

In

難しいのと簡単なやつ、どっちがいい？

Do you want the hard ones or the easy ones?

1. Just confirming that の is nomalizing 難しい (i.e. 難しいの is equivalent to 難しいのこと here)?
2. Is the と here "and"? (As in: is this this one of those phrases where we'd use "or" in English, but the Japanese use "and")?

Answer 1

1. No, this の is a substitute for もの. 難しいもの, 難しいの and 難しいやつ are roughly the same ("difficult one(s)"), but 難しいもの is neutral to formal, 難しいの is informal, and 難しいやつ is slangy.

   • Adjective-No in a Question format?
   • I am confused about nominalisation and the usage of の、こと、物 after verbs and adjectives. Can someone help me?
   • When can you use の to replace a noun?

   Also note that 難しいのこと is ungrammatical. 難しいこと is correct.

2. You are correct.