Spanish Phrase
Cuesta iniciar el contacto.
Meaning
The sentence means ‘It’s hard to start the contact.’ It conveys that beginning communication or establishing a connection with someone is difficult, whether in a personal, professional, or social context.
When to use
Use this phrase when you want to comment on the difficulty of initiating a conversation, a business outreach, or any first‑time interaction. It works well in both formal and informal settings, especially when you want to sound natural and slightly nuanced.
✦Grammar Breakdown
Cuestainiciarelcontacto
Costar (impersonal)
When used impersonally, ‘costar’ expresses difficulty or effort, equivalent to ‘it is hard/expensive to…’ in English.
Infinitive after costar
The verb that follows ‘costar’ must be in the infinitive form (e.g., iniciar, hablar, entender).
Definite article with abstract nouns
‘El contacto’ uses the definite article because you are referring to a specific act of making contact, not the concept of contact in general.
🗨In Conversation
¿Te ha costado iniciar el contacto con el nuevo cliente?
Has it been hard to start contact with the new client?
Sí, cuesta iniciar el contacto, pero ya lo logramos.
Yes, it’s hard to start the contact, but we’ve managed it now.
✕Common Mistakes
Es cuesta iniciar el contacto.
‘Costar’ already carries the meaning of ‘it is hard’; adding ‘es’ is redundant.
Cuesta de iniciar el contacto.
After ‘costar’, the infinitive follows directly without ‘de’.
Cuesta iniciando el contacto.
Use the infinitive ‘iniciar’, not the gerund ‘iniciando’, after ‘costar’.
↔Alternatives
Es difícil iniciar el contacto.
It’s difficult to start the contact.
Resulta complicado iniciar el contacto.
It turns out to be complicated to start the contact.
Me cuesta iniciar el contacto.
I find it hard to start the contact.
Cultural Tip
In Spanish, ‘costar’ is a very common way to express difficulty and sounds slightly more colloquial than ‘es difícil’. It can be used with any infinitive (costar + infinitive). Remember that ‘contacto’ can refer to both personal (e.g., a phone call) and professional (e.g., a business lead) interactions, so the phrase fits many contexts. In Latin America the pronunciation of the ‘c’ in ‘cuesta’ is /k/ and the ‘z’ in ‘iniciar’ is /s/, while in Spain it’s /θ/.