The phrase "is difficult to countenance" is correct and can be used in written English
You can use it when you want to express something is hard to accept or approve of. For example: "The rise in violence in our city is difficult to countenance."
And it is difficult to imagine that a more widespread and true willingness among her neighbors to countenance the existence of an Israel would not have made it very hard, if not impossible, long since, for zero sum extremists to prevail over pluralists, as perennially and increasingly is a hazard in Israel's and the region's politics.
The Republicans refused to countenance anything that would see tax rates rise, even though no sensible analyst believes that the deficit (running at 8.5% this year) can be closed to a sustainable level by spending cuts alone, and even though ruling out any tax rises, even for people making more than $250,000 a year, is difficult to justify.
But for its congregants, it has been increasingly difficult to countenance the mannequins in racy underwear, creeping ever so often unto the property of their tiny, sun-bleached house of worship.
Romney said that it was hard "to countenance".
With images of tanks descending on Ferguson protestors and the stoic countenance of Ieshia Evans before she is pulled behind a line of riot police seared into our national memory, it was difficult to make sense of a decree that encouraged these displays of military force.
Many, particularly among United's alumni, have found it difficult to countenance a world in which Rooney is not a central figure.
RCTs have been infrequently used in evaluation of surgery to the point that some dismiss them as just too difficult to countenance and thus inappropriate a 'square peg in a round hole'.
Considering our failure to visualize in PDR1 -249 cells any gross changes to mitochondrial structure characteristic of mutations affecting mitochondrial division, a model where PDR activation reduces mitochondrial division seems difficult to countenance.
During the 1980s, Chas & Dave committed sins against pop music of such magnitude that it's difficult now to countenance the idea that they might have made an intricately detailed album whose chief characteristics are delicacy and grace.
