What is the difference between investigate and survey and inspect ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.

Answers

karayafall

31 January

English (US)

They all can mean the same thing; it is the act of studying something. But they’re all associated with different actions.

Investigate = Studying something intensely, usually looking for evidence or clues that imply something much larger. (何かを熱心に研究し、通常、より大きな何かを暗示する証拠や手がかりを探すこと。)
You would investigate why a barrel of apples is infested with bugs, but you wouldn’t survey or inspect it.

Survey = Studying something briefly, just to get a quick understanding of the general idea. (何かを簡単に勉強して、大まかな考えを理解すること。)
You would survey a barrel of apples to see how many are red, but you wouldn’t investigate or inspect it.

Inspect = Studying something carefully, but not intensely. It’s usually also brief. (何かを注意深く、しかし、激しくなく研究すること。また、通常、短時間である。)
You would inspect an apple to check if it’s expired, but you wouldn’t investigate or survey it.

yanacyma

31 January

Japanese

@karayafall

My textbook explains these words with examples, below.
From your advice, the first one in investigate seems wrong.

I heard something, so I went downstairs to investigate.
We are trying to investigate alternative uses of existing transport
resources.

We need to conduct a new survey on this issue.
This survey will provide data on labor costs across all sectors of the economy.
The workplace survey reveals concerns over pension and health
Care among employees.

The detectives will inspect the crime scene.