発見(はっけん)

発見(はっけん) refers to discovering or finding something.

Transitivity

• Type: 他動詞(たどうし) (transitive)
• No standard intransitive pair
• Pattern: [noun]を発見(はっけん)する

Common patterns

• 〜を発見(はっけん)する (to discover ~)
• 発見(はっけん)される (to be discovered)
• 大(だい)発見(はっけん) (great discovery)
• 新(しん)発見(はっけん) (new discovery)
• 早期(そうき)発見(はっけん) (early detection)

Usage

• Scientific discoveries: 新(あたら)しい元素(げんそ)の発見(はっけん)
• Medical detection: 病気(びょうき)の発見(はっけん)
• Finding things: 遺跡(いせき)の発見(はっけん) (discovery of ruins)
• Personal realizations: 自分(じぶん)の才能(さいのう)を発見(はっけん)する

Related words

• 発明(はつめい) - invention (creating something new)
• 見(み)つける - to find (casual)
• 発覚(はっかく) - revelation (often negative, e.g., of wrongdoing)

ASPECT (ている):

• 発見(はっけん)している: has discovered, has found (resultative — the discovery is complete)
• 発見(はっけん)されている: has been discovered (passive resultative — commonly used to state that something is a known, documented find)
• Note: 発見(はっけん)する is a punctual achievement verb — the moment of discovery is instantaneous. The ている form therefore indicates the lasting state of having made the discovery, not an ongoing "is discovering" action. The passive 発見(はっけん)されている is especially common in scientific and news contexts: この星(ほし)はすでに発見(はっけん)されている means "this star has already been discovered."