Hm. This is somewhat difficult to answer. They essentially mean the same thing but are used at different times depending on the rest of the sentence. Here's a simple distinguishment which I hope will help: Electric refers to anything that runs on electricity i.e. An electric kettle Electrical refers to something related to electricity i.e. electrical faults, electrical component. "Electric" is used in front of a device or machine that runs on electricity. It is used when the object has been specified. "Electrical" is used in a more general sense, as in referring to ambiguous nouns. (By ambiguous, I mean unspecified e.g. machine, appliance). "electrical" is also used when the object is specified, but the object is not run on electricity, but is related to electricity i.e. Electrical engineer