A method to identify nonlinear elements position of a nonlinear system is presented. Nonlinear elements position can be identified by an equivalent error damping and stiffness matrices which are based on the equivalent linearization technique. The procedures of this technique are: (1) Obtain input force and system response. (2) Define error between the actual and linearized restoring forces. (3) Calculate linearized damping and stiffness coefficients to minimize the square error sum. Several examples are tested and found that these methods are very effective not only to locate the nonlinear elements position but also to identify the degree of nonlinearity qualitatively. Nonlinear type can be qualitatively identified by examining the plots of restoring force vs equivalent state values.