A system for characterizing a liquid comprises a sensor for providing an electrical output signal depending on a characteristic of the liquid, and a processing unit for processing the output signal of the sensor to obtain characterizing data of the liquid. The sensor is made as a single sensor/actuator device and can be connected in a plurality of manners to the processing unit. In at least some of these connecting manners the processing unit is adapted to actuate the sensor/actuator device and to process the output signal of the sensor/actuator device to obtain different characterizing data of the liquid.
