Ever feel like your writing just... clunks? You’re trying to describe a character, or maybe a real-life situation where things are going south, and you reach for that one specific word. Using struggling in a sentence seems easy enough on paper, but if you look at how professional writers or journalists actually use it, there’s a lot more nuance than just "he is struggling."
It’s about friction.
When we talk about struggle, we’re talking about a conflict between a person and their environment, their bank account, or even their own brain. If you use it too vaguely, the sentence dies. If you use it specifically, the reader feels the sweat.
Why Using Struggling in a Sentence is Harder Than It Looks
Most of us learned the basic Subject-Verb-Object structure in elementary school. "The man is struggling." Okay, cool. But what is he struggling with? Is he struggling to do something, or is he struggling against something? The preposition you choose completely changes the emotional weight of the sentence.
Take a look at the news right now. You’ll see headlines about "families struggling to make ends meet" or "athletes struggling with injury." Notice how the word acts as a bridge. It connects a person to a very specific, often painful, reality. Without that specific detail, the word "struggling" is just a placeholder. It’s a "weak" verb unless you give it some context to bite into.
Honestly, people often mix up "struggling" with "trying." There’s a massive difference. Trying implies effort; struggling implies effort plus the high probability of failure. It’s heavier.
The Grammar of Grit
If you want to get technical, "struggling" is the present participle of the verb struggle. You can use it as part of a continuous tense—like "I am struggling with this IKEA desk"—or you can use it as an adjective.
Think about the phrase "a struggling artist." Here, it’s not just an action; it’s an identity. It describes a state of being.
When you’re placing struggling in a sentence, you have to decide if it’s a fleeting moment or a defining characteristic. "She is struggling with the door" means she needs a key or a hard shove. "She is a struggling mother" implies a systemic, long-term battle against poverty or exhaustion. See the difference? One is a physical inconvenience; the other is a narrative.
Real-World Examples: Seeing Struggle in Action
Let’s look at some ways this word shows up in high-level writing.
- In Literature: "He lay on the floor, struggling for breath, as the smoke filled the room." This uses the word to create immediate, visceral stakes.
- In Business: "The startup is struggling to secure Series B funding despite a strong user base." This is more clinical, but it points to a specific hurdle.
- In Everyday Life: "I'm honestly struggling to stay awake in this meeting." It’s relatable and hyperbolic.
You’ve probably noticed that we often pair "struggling" with "to" plus a verb.
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- Struggling to breathe.
- Struggling to cope.
- Struggling to understand.
But you can also struggle with things. You struggle with an idea. You struggle with a heavy box. You struggle with a person. According to the Oxford Learner's Dictionary, the distinction usually lies in whether the obstacle is an action you're trying to perform or a thing you're trying to manage.
The Problem With Overuse
The word is a bit of a cliché in certain circles. If you read a hundred local news stories, you’ll find the word "struggling" in at least eighty of them. "Struggling economy," "struggling school district," "struggling downtown area."
It’s a "tell" word. Writers use it when they’re too lazy to "show" the actual struggle. Instead of saying "the school is struggling," a more vivid writer might say "the school has three broken boilers and a shortage of textbooks." If you’re writing and you find yourself putting struggling in a sentence, ask yourself: can I describe the result of the struggle instead?
Sometimes the answer is no—you need the word for brevity. But often, the sentence is stronger if you describe the actual friction.
Synonyms and When to Swap Them Out
Sometimes "struggling" isn't the right fit. If you're writing a formal report, you might want something more precise. If you're writing a poem, you might want something more rhythmic.
Consider these alternatives:
- Laboring: This feels heavier, more physical. You labor under a heavy load.
- Floundering: This is great for when someone is failing awkwardly. It suggests a lack of direction. A "floundering" student isn't just working hard; they're lost.
- Grappling: This is more intellectual or physical. You grapple with a difficult concept or a wrestler. It implies a bit more "fight" than just "struggling."
- Wrestling: Similar to grappling, but often used for internal conflict. "Wrestling with his conscience."
If you’re trying to improve your prose, swapping "struggling" for one of these can change the entire mood of the paragraph.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One big mistake is the "dangling participle."
"Struggling with the heavy bags, the taxi drove away."
In this sentence, it sounds like the taxi was struggling with the bags. Unless it’s a sentient Pixar car, that’s not what you meant. You have to make sure the person doing the struggling is the subject of the sentence.
Another weird one is using it when the stakes are too low. "I'm struggling to decide between the latte and the cappuccino." It’s fine for casual talk, but in serious writing, it can come off as dramatic or whiny. Use it for things that actually require significant effort.
How Context Changes Everything
Language isn't static. The way we use struggling in a sentence in 2026 is slightly different than how it was used in 1920. Back then, it was often more physical—struggling against a physical oppressor or a literal storm. Today, it’s heavily used in the context of mental health and economics.
"Struggling with my mental health" is a phrase that has become ubiquitous. It’s a way of saying "I'm not okay" without having to give a full medical diagnosis. It’s a soft-focus word that allows for privacy while still communicating distress.
But if you’re writing a biography of someone like Ernest Hemingway, you might use the word to describe his "struggles with the sea" or his "struggle to find the one true sentence." In that context, it’s heroic. It’s about the "Great Man" fighting against the universe.
In a modern HR manual, "struggling" might be used to describe a "struggling employee" who needs a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Here, the word is almost a euphemism for "about to be fired."
The word is a chameleon. It takes on the color of whatever sentence you drop it into.
Making Your Sentences Pop
If you really want to master this, try varying your sentence length.
- He was struggling.
- Despite his best efforts and the support of his entire family, he was still struggling to make sense of the tragedy that had befallen their small town during the height of the summer.
See how the impact changes? The short sentence is a gut punch. The long sentence is a slow burn. Using struggling in a sentence effectively means knowing when to be blunt and when to be descriptive.
Actionable Steps for Better Writing
If you want to use this word—or any word describing conflict—more effectively, follow these steps:
Identify the Source of the Friction
Don't just say someone is struggling. State what is pushing back against them. Is it gravity? Is it the government? Is it their own ego?
Choose the Right Preposition
- Use with for tools, people, or internal emotions.
- Use against for opposing forces or enemies.
- Use to followed by a verb for an uncompleted goal.
Check the Subject
Ensure the person "struggling" is actually the one you’re talking about. Avoid those dangling modifiers that make your sentences look messy and unprofessional.
Audit Your Adverbs
You don't always need an adverb. "He was desperately struggling" is often weaker than just "He struggled." Let the verb do the heavy lifting. If the struggle is truly desperate, the context of the story should tell us that without you having to add the "-ly" word.
Read It Out Loud
The word "struggling" has three syllables. It's a bit clunky. If your sentence already has a lot of multi-syllabic words, it might feel like a mouthful. Sometimes "he fought" or "he tried" sounds better purely because of the rhythm.
When you sit down to write, don't just settle for the first word that comes to mind. If "struggling" is that word, make sure it earns its place in the sentence. Give it a reason to be there. Give it an opponent. Because a struggle without an opponent isn't a struggle at all—it’s just a complaint.
Use the word to show the world where the pressure is. That’s how you write something that people actually want to read. That's how you move beyond "basic" and start writing with real authority.