What is the function of the に in 差別化に大変? **** Hi. I know the underlined sentence means "Differentiating their izakaya restaurant from others is difficult.". And some say the bold is a mistake, which should be . Some say the is a colloquialism to use -ni to introduce the aim of an endeavor for , as in ""(I don't quite understand this explanation). Could you please shed some light on the function of this ? Personally I don't really think it is a mistake, but I can't find this usage in my textbook ether. Thank you.

If I had to choose a definition from a dictionary, it'd be this:

> ****

But it is far from enough specific for your question, I guess.

The explanation you got "to introduce the aim of an endeavor" is basically correct, that the expression implies that someone is _doing_ something at the moment, and tells what condition they are in (by adjective), trying to achieve or finish what (by ).

> _The teacher is busy marking the tests._
> _The manager is eager in improving scoring ability._

The adjective has to describe a certain manner of an action, so "action-less" kind of words like mental adjectives are not allowed.

> ×

>
> "I guess an izakaya in an outlying area must be desperate for differentiating itself from others."
> "I guess an izakaya in an outlying area must try the hard way to differentiate itself from others."
> "I guess an izakaya in an outlying area always struggles to differentiate itself from others."