効 vs 效 / Effective vs Efficient

WaniKani
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So I stumbled a few times now about getting 効率 wrong, since it is described as Efficiency, even though the Kanji 効 means Effective. There is a clear distinction between effective and efficient, so I tried to find a Kanji for both of them.

Jisho showed me the Kanji 效 for efficient, but 効 is listed as a variant of that.

So my question is basically: Is there a distinction for Effective and Efficient in Japanese? Or are they kind of merged together?

Would appreciate any help or clarification on this!

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I think, care a little less about Kanji’s meaning, and add synonyms liberally. Vocabularies associated with the Kanji are more important. If there aren’t many vocabularies, explanations (especially in Japanese), rather than English word fixing, are more important.

Vocabularies are subjected to usage and explanation as well, but have less leeway than Kanji.

効率 is the point here.

About the English translations of Kanji in Jisho, there are old and not updated.

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Efficiency (効率) is the ratio (率) of effectiveness (効), seems ok to me?

Something is efficient if it’s effective (produce a result that is wanted) for a low ratio of effort.

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I see, thanks! Also I didn’t know the translations in Jisho are old and not updated, that’s good to know :joy:

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Yes, this. 効率 is “efficiency”. 効率的 is “efficient” (an adjective). 効果 is “effect”, and its adjective “effective” is 効果的.

(There are also other ways to say the things you might use ‘effective’ for in English, languages not being 1:1 matches.)

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They’re both the same character. The former is outdated though, so the Japanese almost exclusively use the latter.

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Yeah I see it now, I was way too focused on the 効 Kanji meaning instead of seeing how both of the Kanji might work together to mean something different.

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