We would like to briefly address a general issue that sometimes seems to lead to contradictions. In our opinion, it is a translation problem. English is a beautiful language that connects people in the world. But some words cannot be translated exactly into another language. We suspect that some people, when discussing in forums, run posts through an automatic translator in their specific language and it suggests related but non identical terms. So sometimes evidence is translated as proof.
When we talk about "evidence" in our book, we don't mean "proof". We think most people understand that. In the original German, we write "Hinweis". "Hinweise" are translated as evidence or clue or hints, which have no difference, but you would chose "evidence", when it comes to criminal investigations. But Hinweis/evidence is very different from proof or german "Beweis".
English dictionaries for "evidence" also make this specific distinction, so that it corresponds to the German "Hinweis". The Oxford Learner's Dictionaries defines evidence as “the facts, signs, or objects that make you believe that something is true.”
The word evidence is commonly used in law, court, or criminal investigations. In these settings, evidence refers to the various facts in a case that point to guilt.
One piece of evidence alone is not usually enough to prove guilt. You must have enough evidence to determine if someone is guilty.
In contradiction: When all the evidence points to a concrete conclusion, you have proof. Proof is something that establishes certainty. In other words, proof is what proves something is true beyond a reasonable doubt.
It is probably not possible to establish an exact correspondence between the German „Hinweis“ and the English „evidence“. In German-English dictionaries, evidence is translated both as Beweis (legal) and Hinweis, although Hinweis and Beweis are two completely different things in German.
We hope that we have been able to provide some clarity. If you have any comments, please send us a message or leave a comment.
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