What is the difference between Notice and Realize?

What is the difference between realize and notice? A lot of students who study English had this question at some point. Do they have the same meaning? Can we use them interchangeably?

Here’s the answer: notice and realize are close synonyms. They have same meaning but they aren’t fully interchangeable. What does it mean? It means that we should use these two words depending on the context. You probably want to take a look at how this rule works. First, let’s go over the meaning of the word “notice.” It means that you became conscious of something that you haven’t seen before. Notice is used when you see something new (e.g. you notice your friend has bought a new phone).

Here are some examples:

Dan, you’ve got a new suit! I didn’t notice until now. You look amazing in it.

I bought a new phone and just noticed that the screen has a small scratch.

She noticed that the front door was open

Now let’s take a look at the word “realize.” We use this word when we actively think about something and go over it in our head. It is more about mental experience rather than physical.

The following examples will help you understand when to use the word “realize” better:

After our talk yesterday I realized that I did everything wrong. I have to apologize.

He was working on this task for the whole day and just realized that he didn’t have to do it.

She needs to realize that what she did was wrong.

Both realize and notice have to do with seeing something and drawing a conclusion about it. However, notice is more about “feel, see or hear” and realize includes the word “know.”