ビル (biru) or 建物 (tatemono) as a translation for 'building' in Japanese?


I see there are two words for building in Japanese, ビル and 建物【たてもの】. Can
someone tell me the difference and when I should use one or the other?




「[建物]{たてもの}」 (tatemono) is a neutral Japanese word for building. I found a
definition of "building" at [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building
"Wikipedia"):

> a structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one
> place, such as a house or factory.

This applies to the Japanese word 「建物」.

On the other hand, the word 「ビル」 (biru), which obviously originates from the
English word "building," has a different meaning than English "building." I
think most Japanese people agree that 「ビル」 refers to a certain kind of
building, which are tall and have many floors, as in the image below (taken
from [Google Image
Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%83%93%E3%83%AB&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=662&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2gtS458XRAhUDmJQKHTeMADAQ_AUIBigB
"Google Image Search")).

[![ビル](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gITvO.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gITvO.jpg)

* * *

So, if you are to imply that you are talking about this kind of buildings, use
「ビル」 (biru). Use 「建物」 (tatemono) in any other case.

