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Learn Hardcore Japanese: keisatu ga genin wo tokuteisita. - The police identified the cause.

Hardcore Japanese
/Redecorating a room with a friend
/keisatsu ga genin o tokuteishita.

keisatsu ga genin o tokuteishita.

警察けいさつ　が　原因げにん　を　特定とくていした。keisatsu ga genin o tokuteishita.

The police identified the cause.

Breakdown of keisatsu ga genin o tokuteishita.

direct object particle

subject particle

警察けいさつkeisatsu

原因げにんgenin

Questions & Answers about keisatsu ga genin o tokuteishita.

How is this sentence read?

It is read:

けいさつがげんいんをとくていした。

Word by word:

警察 = けいさつ = police
原因 = げんいん = cause
特定した = とくていした = identified / determined

In normal Japanese writing, it would usually appear without spaces:

警察が原因を特定した。

What does 警察 mean here? Is it singular or plural?

警察 means the police as an institution or organization.

Like the police in English, it does not have to clearly show singular vs. plural in the same way that a regular count noun does. In this sentence, it simply means that the police identified the cause.

So you should not think of it as necessarily a police officer. If you wanted to say a police officer, you would use something like 警察官.

Why is が used after 警察?

Nihon-shiki romanizationwatasi ha tyuugoku kara kimasita

Hepburn romanizationwatashi wa chuugoku kara kimashita

特定とくていするtokuteisuru

to identify; pinpoint

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Here, が marks 警察 as the grammatical subject of the sentence.

So:

警察が = the police are the ones who did the action
原因を = the thing that was identified
特定した = identified

A natural way to understand the structure is:

[The police] [identified] [the cause].

Japanese often uses が when introducing or focusing on who did it.

Why isn’t it 警察は instead of 警察が?

Both are possible in some contexts, but they feel different.

警察が原因を特定した。
This focuses more on the police as the subject, or simply presents the event as new information.
警察は原因を特定した。
This makes the police the topic, often with a nuance like as for the police, they identified the cause.

So が is often used when you are just reporting what happened, especially in news-like statements.

A rough comparison:

警察が原因を特定した。 = The police identified the cause.
警察は原因を特定した。 = The police, at least, identified the cause. / As for the police, they identified the cause.

What is the role of を in this sentence?

を marks the direct object of the verb.

Here:

原因を = the cause is the thing being identified

So 特定する is acting on 原因.

This is very similar to English word order in meaning:

subject: 警察
object: 原因
verb: 特定した

What is the dictionary form of 特定した?

The dictionary form is 特定する.

This is a する-verb noun + する combination:

特定 = identification / specification
特定する = to identify / to determine

Then:

特定する → non-past
特定した → past

So 特定した means identified or determined.

Why is 特定した in the past tense?

Because the sentence is reporting a completed action:

The police identified the cause.

Japanese past tense often covers what English expresses as simple past:

特定した = identified / determined

In news writing, Japanese often uses the plain past form to report an event that has already happened.

Does 特定した mean exactly the same as found out?

Not exactly.

特定した is more formal and precise. It means something like:

identified
determined
pinpointed

So this sentence sounds more official or factual than a casual phrase like found out.

For example, in a police or news context, 特定した is very natural because it suggests that the cause was established or confirmed.

What does 原因 mean here? Is it the same as reason?

原因 means cause.

It is close to reason, but not always the same.

原因 = the cause of something, often in a factual or physical sense
理由 = reason, often explaining motive or justification

For example:

火事の原因 = the cause of the fire
遅れた理由 = the reason for being late

So in this sentence, 原因 is the correct word if the police identified what caused an event.

Can the word order change?

Yes, Japanese word order is more flexible than English, as long as the particles stay the same.

For example, these can mean basically the same thing:

警察が原因を特定した。
原因を警察が特定した。

Because the particles show the roles:

が = subject
を = object

However, changing the order can change emphasis. The most neutral order here is:

警察が原因を特定した。

Is this sentence formal?

Yes, it is fairly formal or neutral, and it sounds very natural in writing, reports, or news.

Reasons:

特定する is a formal verb
the sentence uses plain form, which is common in written reports
the vocabulary is not casual conversation vocabulary

In casual speech, someone might use a less formal expression depending on context, but for police reports or news, this sentence sounds very natural.

Could this sentence also be said in a more polite form?

Yes. A polite version would be:

警察が原因を特定しました。

The difference is:

特定した = plain past
特定しました = polite past

The meaning is the same, but しました is appropriate in polite speech or formal conversation.

Would a passive sentence be more natural in some contexts?

Sometimes, yes. For example:

原因が特定された。

This means:

The cause was identified.

That version focuses on the result rather than on who identified it.

So:

警察が原因を特定した。 = focuses on the police doing the identifying
原因が特定された。 = focuses on the cause having been identified

Both are natural, but they highlight different things.

Why are there spaces in the sentence here?

They are probably included only for learners, to make the parts easier to see:

警察
が
原因
を
特定した

In normal Japanese writing, you usually do not put spaces between words, so it would be written as:

警察が原因を特定した。

Japanese relies on kanji, kana, and context rather than spaces to show word boundaries.

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