Translation guide
The English word 'identifying' covers several distinct actions: recognizing someone or something, stating who or what someone/something is, and discovering or establishing the nature of something. This guide breaks down these meanings and gives natural Japanese expressions for each.
To recognize or pick out a person or thing from others, often based on appearance or known characteristics.
To distinguish or tell apart by sight or other senses. Commonly used when you can recognize differences.
It's hard to identify the twins.
To identify or discriminate, often used in technical or formal contexts, such as identifying a species or a signal.
This device can identify faces.
To specify or pinpoint, often used when identifying a specific person, cause, or problem after investigation.
The police identified the suspect.
To say or show the identity of a person or thing, such as giving a name or description.
To verify someone's identity, often used in official contexts like checking ID.
The police identified him by his driver's license.
A casual way to say 'it turns out to be' or 'I realize it is', often used when you figure out what something is.
I identified that bird as a crow.
To identify or determine the identity of something, mainly used in scientific or academic contexts (e.g., identifying a species or chemical).
To find out or determine what something is, often through analysis or investigation.
To track down or ascertain, often used when you finally identify a cause, source, or location after effort.
We identified the cause of the problem.
To clarify or elucidate, used when identifying the truth or mechanism behind something, often in research.
見分ける is for distinguishing by senses, 識別する is more technical/formal for classification, and 特定する is for pinpointing a specific entity after investigation.
Even pros find it hard to identify fakes.
Identify individuals by fingerprints.
Identify the cause of the accident.
同一視する means 'to equate' or 'to regard as the same', not 'to identify' in the sense of recognition. Avoid using it when you mean to recognize or determine identity.
The researcher identified a new species of frog.
Scientists are trying to identify the phenomenon.