I was looking at a document for work this morning, and I noticed that they translated the phrase "demanding jobs" (i.e. jobs that require a lot of work / time commitment) as:

きつい仕事
きつい　しごと
demanding job(s)
Literally: "tight / severe / demanding + job / work."

It got me thinking about the plethora of ways that the word きつい is used in Japanese.

If you look in a J-E dictionary, you're going to be bombarded with definitions for this highly common word:

きつい
tight、demanding、rugged、tough、hard、grueling、heavy、punishing、arduous、toilsome

Yikes.

Let's just take it one example at a time...

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Lesson Note

For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to write "tight" or "intense" for きつい in each literal breakdown.

I think it will be clear from the translations that these will not be the exactmeanings for many of these sentences, but generally speaking, those are the two definitions that I divide this word into in my head.

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きつい means "not a lot of space; tight."

靴ひもはきつく結んだほうがいいよ。
くつ　ひも　は　きつく　むすんだ　ほう　が　いい　よ。
You should tie your shoelaces tight.
Literally: "shoelaces [=shoe + string] + は + tightly + should tie [=tied + way + が + good] + よ."

I'm sure we've mentioned this a few times already in NDL's, but that "should tie" is formed like this:

Take a verb like 結ぶ（むすぶ // to tie）and then put it in past tense. Then add ～方がいい.

結んだ（むすんだ // tied）
方（ほう // way; direction）
が
いい（good）

For example, 飲む（のむ）is "to drink."
↓
飲んだ（のんだ）is "drank."
↓
飲んだ方がいい（のんだほうがいい）is "should drink."

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きつい doesn't have to mean "tight" the way we have "tight laces." It can also just refer to a lack of space or a "tight squeeze:"

For example, if you're at a restaurant, and you're jammed into the corner, but your friend at the end of the table has a ton of room, you could say:

こっちきついからちょっと詰めて。
こっち　きつい　から　ちょっと　つめて。
Could you scoot down? There's no room over here.
Literally: "over here + tight + because + a little + pack"

I don't know why, but I've always thought it was cool that the verb 詰める (つめる), which can be used for talking about "packing" something tightly (like canned foods or luggage), can be used to say "scoot over."

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きつい means "intense; severe; hard"

Here's the usage that caught my eye this morning:

きつい仕事はやりたくない！
きつい　しごと　は　やりたくない！
I don't want to have a demanding job!
Literally: "intense + job + は + don't want to do!"

I was conflicted about putting "have" in the translation instead of "do," but I thought that would make it sound like the speaker is referring to a specific task they don't want to do. Our speaker here is (probably) referring to a type of job/occupation they don't want to do... one that requires a lot of work!

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Since this きつい means something like "intense," we can also use it for "intense smells:"

においがきつい洗剤は嫌い。
におい　が　きつい　せんざい　は　きらい。
I hate strong-smelling detergents.
Literally: "smell + が + intense + detergent + は + disliked / hated."

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Or let's say that your significant other says something like, "Close the window!!!!!!"

It's clear he/she is overreacting. Why not just ask you nicely? You're a reasonable person.

So you could say:

そんなきつい言い方しなくてもいいじゃん。
そんな　きつい　いいかた　しなくても　いい　じゃん。
You don't have to say it like that. // You don't have to talk to me that way. // You don't have to use that tone with me.
Literally: "that kind of + intense + way of saying + don't need to do + じゃん."

Note how ～しなくてもいい means "you don't have to do."

する is "to do."
↓
しない is "not do / don't do."
↓
しなくても, which uses the te-form of しない plus も, could be translated to a lot of things, like "even if you don't do."
↓
Add いい, "good," to that, and we get:
↓
～しなくてもいい
(you) don't have to do

～じゃん means something like "right?"

To explain it, I'm gonna jack this note right out of Lesson #117: ～じゃん is a more emphatic, conversational contraction of ～じゃない？, which is a casual version of ではない？or the even more formal ～ではありませんか？... all of which can be more or less translated to "isn't it?" or "don't you think?" I've heard that saying ～じゃん outside of the Tokyo area is not that common.

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Imagine that you're a parent, and your child just did something terrible like pour milk on an old lady at the grocery store.

You're horrified. While apologizing, you say...

すみません、きつく叱っておきます。
すみません、 きつく　しかって　おきます。
I'm sorry, I'll be sure to scold him. // I'm sorry. He'll be getting in big trouble for this.
Literally: "excuse me // I'm sorry, + intensely + will be sure to scold."

I gave the second translation, because I think Japanese people say "scold" too often when they're speaking English.

But then, they say it often because 叱る（しかる // to scold）is such a common word in Japanese. So maybe that translation works better. I don't know.

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Last, let's do some intense exercise walking up and down some intense hills:

ここら辺はきつい坂が多いね。
ここらへん　は　きつい　さか　が　おおい　ね。
There are a lot of steep hills around here, huh?
Literally: "around here + は + intense + slope + が + many + ね."

Intense Slope → Steep Hill

Makes sense, I suppose, yeah?