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.
氷が溶けた。
The ice melted.
バターが溶けている。
The butter is melting.
Transitive: to melt something (ice, butter, metal). You apply heat to turn a solid into liquid.
バターを溶かしてください。
Please melt the butter.
金属を溶かすには高温が必要だ。
You need high temperatures to melt metal.
Technical term for melting or fusion, used in scientific contexts.
氷が融解する温度は0度だ。
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.
砂糖が水に溶けた。
The sugar dissolved in the water.
Transitive: to dissolve something (sugar, salt) in a liquid.
Formal/technical term for dissolving, used in chemistry.
この物質は水に溶解しやすい。
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.
天然ガスを液化して運ぶ。
Natural gas is liquefied and transported.
空気が液化する温度は非常に低い。
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.
水蒸気が凝縮して水滴になる。
Steam condenses into water droplets.
Something becomes liquid without necessarily heat, or a figurative use like 'liquefy assets'.
To become liquid, often used for soil liquefaction in earthquakes or general change to liquid state.
地震で地盤が液状化した。
The ground liquefied due to the earthquake.
To fluidize, make something flow like liquid. Often used in finance or engineering.
資産を流動化する。
To 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.
チョコレートが溶けた。
The chocolate melted.
窒素を液化する。
Liquefy nitrogen.
液化する sounds overly technical for melting ice cream or butter. Use 溶ける/溶かす instead.
Dissolve sugar in hot water.