So, I’ve hit level 25, and it seems to me that there are a million words for police. Well, not a million million but it certainly feels that way.
They all feel too similar and I keep getting them wrong and mixed up because of that, if I understood them better I’m sure they’d be easier to get right.
I understand 警察 as a general concept for police, 警官 is a police officer and apparently 警察官 is too,
交番 is the small police stations where you go ask about your lost things.
But the ones I really don’t get the difference are these ones:
警察署
警察庁
警視庁
They all seem so similar it’s really hard for me to grasp them as separate entities. Help me out?
警察署 is a police station
警察庁 is comparable to the FBI in the United States
警視庁 is the metropolitan police (for instance of a large city like Tokyo)
As you can see it would be kind of strange to say that there are too many words for police in English just because we call the FBI and New York Police Department different things.
In English we also have police officer, cop, law enforcement official, sheriff, trooper, policeman, patrolman, the fuzz, the popo, etc.
Police officer
Cop
Policeman/Policewoman
Patrol officer
Patrolman/Patrolwoman
Meter Maid
Officer
Law Enforcement Officer (LEO for short)
Lawman/Lawwoman
Peace Officer
Constable
Deputy
Sheriff
Detective
Dick
Gendarme
Fuzz
The Man
?
Why are there a million ways to say police in English and with loan words?
