🆚What is the difference between "target location" and "target locating" ? "target location" vs "target locating" ? (2024)

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the -ing ending refers to the action of that thing, whereas -ation is more often (if not always) found attached to words that function as nouns.

Taking your example, "target location" refers to the physical location of something you are trying to reach/find. An example sentence would be "We drove for 8 hours before we reached our target location."

"Target locating" would refer to the physical action of looking for the target. However, in almost all cases, "target locating" would be "locating a/the target" for grammatical purposes. An example sentence would be "We were locating a/the target by looking at the map."

Another example of this -ing/-ation would be rotating/rotation.

Example sentences:
1. The wheel was rotating at 100 rotations per second.

2. The wheel's rotation was too slow, so we changed it out for a new one.

I hope this makes sense!!

Thanks a lot!
I’m in charge of technical translation and "target location/locating" is expected to serve as nouns describing the function of our product. I wonder whether “target locating” could be used solely as a specification term here.
I was confused because I refer to the online Cambridge dictionary that "location" itself has the meaning of "act of finding the exact position of something”. But I do agree with you that -ing highlights the action of doing and -ation here could be confusing.

@Enid1997 I didn't even think about that. "target locating" could technically be used as a noun (in a way) For example, "We are using sonar for target locating." I'm just more used to using -ing as verbs and -ation as nouns. English likes to be really special like that sometimes.

I see~~~///(^v^)\\\~~~Thank you!

@Enid1997 In using "location" as a verb, you could say "We use sonar to help make the location of the boat easier."

@Enid1997 Of course!!

I just thought of another thing that is tangentially related. The word "process" can be used as a verb and a noun.

As a verb: "I have to process what I just saw"

As a noun: "The process is a lot longer than you think."

That's true. But for "process" I would naturally use "data processing".
If a word can be used as verb and a noun without changing the form, I prefer using its -ing when I need to strengthen the act. I'm not sure if this is reasonable

@Enid1997 That's fair. I'm all for strengthening text as long as it doesn't become too wordy.