Nuances between 災難 and 災い

Question

As the title says, I'm not sure of the difference between 災難 and 災い. Both seem to be mainly used for "personal" disasters (as opposed to 災害). There is a GOO Thesaurus page, but it doesn't really help me here. It does indicate 犬にかまれるとはとんだ災難だ is natural but にかまれるとはとんだ災いだ is odd. Is there a reason for this?

Another more minor question: while the thesaurus indicates only 難 is used for Xの constructions for defining a type of disaster, I see many example sentences of the form 難を避けた, 難を免れた, and so on. Is "難を(escape-like word)" another specific pattern that is exclusive to 難? And are the Xの難 and 難をescape patterns the only way 難 is used?

Answer 1

To some extent, they mean the same 'bad event', but

• 災い has religious/supernatural tone; it is more abstract and affects 'big' entities.
• 災難 is more concrete, personal bad luck.

Being bitten by a dog is too personal to be called 災い. And the influence of an earthquake is too big for 地震 to be called 災難.

Other than that, the difference is a matter of usage and collocation. 災難/災いに見舞われる (affected by something bad) are both fine; In the following (randomly picked in BCCWJ), 災難 cannot be used.

• 助けを求めてエジプトに下り、馬に依り頼む者は災いだ Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses (usage)
• 水辺で身体を清め、災いを祓う (religious)
• 大英帝国にとって災いの前兆であったのだ (big)
• パンドラの箱を開けてしまったが為に災いがこの世に飛び出す (abstract)
• 災い転じて福となす (fixed phrase)

災いだ is the opposite to Blessed are...; Also it is possible to say 災い+する to mean affect negatively while 災難する is ungrammatical.

---

For 難, I think it is used almost exclusively in combinations with verbs given in the following (or verbs meaning very similar):

１ 災い。災難。「あやうく―を逃れる」
２ むずかしいこと。むずかしさ。困難。「―を避け、易 (やす) きに就く」
３ 欠点。「少々―のある品」「強いて―をいえばやや甘さが足りない」
４ 非難すべき点。難点。「うかつだったとの―を免かれない」