Translation guide
The English word "sort" has several distinct meanings. This guide covers the most common uses: a kind or type of something, a way of sorting or classifying things, and the computing operation of sorting data. It also touches on the British informal meaning of "sort of" as a hedge.
Referring to a category, kind, or type of person or thing.
What sort of music do you like? · He's the sort of person who never gives up. · All sorts of people came to the party.
The most direct and common translation for "sort" or "kind" when talking about categories of things.
What sort of music do you like?
This store has all sorts of cheese.
A loanword from English, often used for "type" in a similar way to 種類, but can sound slightly more casual or modern. Commonly used for people.
He's the serious sort of person.
What sort of car do you want?
Used to mean "sort of like" or "a kind of". Attach to a noun to describe something similar.
It tastes sort of like an apple.
Casual equivalent of ～のような, used in spoken Japanese.
That person has a sort of celebrity aura.
The action of arranging items into categories or order.
I need to sort these papers. · Sort the laundry by color. · The machine sorts the fruit by size.
Means "to classify" or "to sort into categories". Used for systematic sorting.
Please sort the books by genre.
It's important to sort trash.
Means "to rearrange" or "to sort by order", often used for lists or data.
Means "to sort" or "to separate" items, often used for physical objects like mail or laundry.
A loanword from English, used specifically in computing contexts for sorting data.
Write a function to sort this list.
Used to soften a statement, express approximation, or indicate uncertainty.
I'm sort of tired. · It's sort of like a bird. · That's sort of what I meant.
A versatile word that can mean "a little" or "kind of". Often used to soften statements.
I'm sort of tired.
I think that's sort of different.
A casual filler meaning "like" or "kind of". Very common in informal speech.
I'm sort of not feeling it today.
Used at the end of a phrase to mean "or something like that" or "sort of thing".
Means "in a sense" or "sort of". More formal and used for abstract qualifications.
English "sort" as a verb often translates to different Japanese verbs depending on context. Do not use ソートする outside of computing. Use 分類する for categorizing, 並べ替える for ordering, and 仕分ける for physical separation.
Both mean "kind" or "type". 種類 is more formal and objective, often used for categories of objects. タイプ is more casual and subjective, often used for personal preferences or people's characteristics.
Please sort the data by date.
Let's sort them alphabetically by name.
洗濯物を色別に仕分けてください。
Please sort the laundry by color.
That movie was sort of scary.
Like going to the movies or shopping, that sort of thing.
That's sort of correct, in a sense.