Translation guide
The English verb "recover" covers several distinct situations: getting back something lost, returning to health, bouncing back emotionally or financially, and retrieving data or objects. Japanese uses different verbs for each.
To recover from an illness, injury, or surgery; to get back to a healthy state.
General term for recovering health, strength, or condition. Used for both physical and mental recovery.
He fully recovered from his illness.
Recovery after the surgery is going well.
Intransitive verb meaning 'to heal' or 'to get better'. Used for injuries, wounds, or diseases. The subject is the affected body part or illness.
My cold got better.
Has your wound healed yet?
Transitive verb meaning 'to cure' or 'to heal'. The subject is the person or treatment that causes recovery.
The doctor cured my illness.
Literally 'to become well/energetic'. A casual, everyday way to say someone recovered their energy or spirits.
I'm all better now.
To recover a lost item, stolen property, or something taken away.
To take back or regain something that was lost, stolen, or given away. Emphasizes the action of reclaiming.
I recovered my stolen wallet.
To collect or retrieve something, often used for objects, data, or materials in a systematic way. More formal than 取り戻す.
The police recovered the stolen goods.
To find something that was lost. Often used when the recovery is simply locating the item.
To recover from emotional shock, sadness, or a setback; to regain composure.
To recover from financial loss, economic downturn, or a market decline.
To recover deleted files, data, or information from a computer or device.
To regain consciousness after fainting or being knocked out.
To recover a dead body, wreckage, or remains.
回復する is a general term for recovery (health, economy, condition) and can be used for both physical and abstract things. 治る is specifically for healing of injuries or illnesses and is intransitive (the wound heals). Use 治す when someone cures something.
For emotional recovery, 立ち直る is much more natural than 回復する, which can sound clinical. 回復する for emotions is possible but less common in casual speech.
I hope you recover soon.
Natural well-wishing; 回復しますように is also possible but slightly formal.
The patient recovered quickly.
She never fully recovered from the accident.
Emotional/psychological recovery nuance.
He regained his confidence.
なくした鍵を見つけた。
I found (recovered) my lost keys.
It took time to recover from the failure.
Business performance recovered.