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inspecteur

inspector

noun ahn-spek-TUR Less Common

Also means

detective

Usage Note

Inspecteur refers to an official inspector or, in fiction, a police detective. The feminine form is inspectrice. The detective sense is strongly associated with crime novels and films; in the real French police the rank was renamed lieutenant in the 1990s, so inspecteur now mostly survives in storytelling.

Examples

"L'inspecteur pose des questions aux témoins."

Natural Translation

The inspector questions the witnesses.

Literal Translation

The-inspector poses of-the questions to-the witnesses

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