2009/04/27

What's the difference between "remember" and "recall"?

Today there were a lot of interesting questions, and this was one of them. There was some confusion about these two words in Japanese and their English translations. The definitions below are from Edict.
  • 思い出す to recall; to remember; (P);
  • 憶える (1) to remember; to recollect; to memorize; to memorise;
Sometimes these two words can be used with the same meaning.
  • I can't recall what she said.
  • I can't remember what she said.
Sometimes both of them can be used, but "remember" is much more common.
  • Do you remember the good times we had? ("remember the good times", 956,000 cases in Google)
  • Do you recall the good times we had? ("recall the good times", 11,200 cases in Google)
Maybe nobody told the rock band Journey, though. I had a laugh at this tune:
In this case, I think the word "reminisce" is a good word to use.
  • reminisce about the good old days
    昔の思い出話をする
There's a great rap track with this word, Pete Rock and CL Smooth with "They Reminisce Over You". The sax sample is great. This is widely considered one of the top 100 rap tracks of all time.
Sometimes, though, you cannot use "recall" but can use "remember" when the meaning is "to memorize" or "to keep in memory".
  • ○ Please remember this for the future.
  • × Please recall this for the future.
Recall (with the stress on the first syllable) is sometimes a noun with a different meaning, which is to ask consumers to return a product because it is defective or unsafe.
  • The company has issued a recall for the defective units for safety reasons.
I hope you'll remember this post when it comes time for you to choose between "remember" and "recall".

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