辛い: からい for spiciness and つらい for difficulty
Compare 辛い read as からい for food and sauce with 辛い read as つらい for parting and unfamiliar work. Follow the reading and evaluated target despite the shared spelling.
からい for food
「この料理は唐辛子が多くてとても辛い。」 — “This dish has a lot of chili pepper and is very spicy.” 辛い is read からい when describing this dish’s spiciness. 唐辛子が多くて gives the stated reason the dish is very spicy.
「辛い物が苦手なので、ソースを少なめに頼んだ。」 — “I am not good with spicy food, so I asked for less sauce.” 辛い物 refers to spicy food, and 少なめに頼んだ reports requesting less sauce. The request does not report the actual amount served or completed consumption.
つらい for painful experiences
「大切な友人との別れはとても辛い。」 — “Parting with a dear friend is very painful.” The evaluated experience is parting with a dear friend. 辛い is read つらい here and does not describe a food flavor.
「慣れない作業を一日続けるのは辛かった。」 — “It was difficult to continue unfamiliar work all day.” 慣れない作業を一日続けるの names the difficult experience. 辛かった reports the past evaluation without merging it with からい for spicy food.
Reading and context with a shared spelling
The same spelling 辛い has からい for spiciness and つらい for difficulty or pain. Identify food and sauce or parting and unfamiliar work as the evaluated target.
Requesting less sauce with 少なめに and finding a day of unfamiliar work 辛かった describe different experiences. They do not place spiciness and difficulty on a single shared scale.
How is 辛い read in 「慣れない作業を一日続けるのは辛かった」?
Show the answer and why
It is read つらい and describes how difficult it was to continue unfamiliar work for a day. The evaluated target differs from からい describing spicy food.