Translation guide
To make or become liquid. In Japanese, different verbs are used depending on whether the change is caused by heat, physical force, or occurs naturally, and whether the subject is a solid or a gas.
The most common meaning: a solid becomes liquid due to heat, or you heat a solid to make it liquid.
Intransitive: something melts (ice, butter, metal). Used for solids turning into liquid by heat.
The ice melted.
The butter is melting.
Transitive: to melt something (ice, butter, metal). You apply heat to turn a solid into liquid.
Please melt the butter.
You need high temperatures to melt metal.
Technical term for melting or fusion, used in scientific contexts.
The temperature at which ice melts is 0 degrees.
A solid mixes into a liquid and becomes part of it, like sugar in water.
Intransitive: to dissolve (sugar, salt). Same kanji as 'melt', but context distinguishes.
The sugar dissolved in the water.
Transitive: to dissolve something (sugar, salt) in a liquid.
Formal/technical term for dissolving, used in chemistry.
This substance dissolves easily in water.
Turning a gas into a liquid, often in scientific or industrial contexts.
Both transitive and intransitive: to liquefy (a gas) or become liquid. Standard term.
Natural gas is liquefied and transported.
The temperature at which air liquefies is extremely low.
To condense (gas to liquid), often used for steam or vapor. More specific than general liquefaction.
Something becomes liquid without necessarily heat, or a figurative use like 'liquefy assets'.
溶ける (とける) is the everyday word for melting or dissolving solids. 液化する (えきかする) is technical and used for gases turning into liquids or in scientific contexts. For cooking or daily life, use 溶ける/溶かす.
The chocolate melted.
Liquefy nitrogen.
液化する sounds overly technical for melting ice cream or butter. Use 溶ける/溶かす instead.
砂糖をお湯に溶かす。
Dissolve sugar in hot water.
Steam condenses into water droplets.