Hey. I consistently fuck up the English translations for the words involving 尉 and 佐 kanji: 少尉、中尉、大尉、少佐、中佐、大佐。 I don’t really know the difference between these words in English to be honest, and looking them up in a dictionary yields numerous English translations.
Do I just suspend these? Does anyone have a tip or trick to help me get the right meanings?
At the risk of asking a stupid question, are you trying monolingual dictionaries too?
Not that it’ll help greatly, since you’ll basically get definitions that are like “the rank between an X and a Y” but in Japanese.
I don’t think there’s really any other way to think about them. They are ranks and they fall into an order.
These terms are describing officer ranks in the military. 少尉、中尉、大尉 are company-grade ranks: 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, and Captain.
少佐、中佐、大佐 are the field-grade ranks Major, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel. Since Japan has a Self-Defense Force and not a military, these are the equivalent ranks that they use to break down their officer corps by seniority. From youngest to oldest, (and most junior to most senior) 少尉、中尉、大尉、少佐、中佐、大佐。There is a pattern there, but having a military background helps…
Hope this helps.
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