Addressing people in law enforcement

By Sigrid Lee

We have talked about ways to address people in a previous lesson. In this lesson, we'll look at how to address law enforcement professionals, with examples from Yabla videos. In future lessons, we'll touch on other professions and circumstances where we'll want to know how to address someone properly.

In Italy, there are various branches of law enforcement, or le forze dell'ordine.

In Italia abbiamo molte forze dell'ordine, cioè molte specialità.

In Italy we have many law enforcement branches, that is, many specialties.

Caption 1, Nicola Agliastro Le Forze dell'Ordine in Italia
Play Caption

For more about law enforcement branches in Italy, see: Cops: Carabinieri, Vigili, or Poliziotti?

banner3 PLACEHOLDER

In the first example, we're on the street and a uniformed police officer arrives on the scene. He is addressed as agente. Agente, non ho potuto evitarla, mi si è buttata sotto.

Officer, I couldn't avoid her. She threw herself underneath me.

Caption 18, Provaci ancora prof! S2E4 L'amica americana - Part 6

Play Caption

In the unlikely case we know the officer's name, we can add that.

Agente Cuomo, dimmi.

Agent Cuomo, what is it?

Caption 13, I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone S1EP3 Vicini - Part 2
Play Caption

The police have arrived at the home of a witness or suspect. They are in plain clothes and clearly investigators.

Ispettore, ve lo giuro, io non avrei mai fatto del male a Teresa.

Detective, I swear it, I would never have hurt Teresa.

Caption 22, I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone S1EP3 Vicini - Part 19
Play Caption

Here, we are at the police station. The person in charge is sitting at a desk, not in uniform. Whatever his actual title, commissario works in addressing him or her.

Signora, risponda alla domanda, era quello il ragazzo? Sì, commissario, era lui.

Ma'am, answer the question, was this the boy? Yes, Inspector, it was him.

Captions 82-84, Provaci ancora prof! S2E5 Vita da cani - Part 17
Play Caption

Higher up in rank than a commissario is the questore. Usually, he or she has contact with people within the office, not people who come in for questioning or people on the street. He may be addressed with signor or signora before his title. In this example, an inspector or police chief is speaking to his superior.

Signor questore, abbiamo già una pista.

Mister Commissioner, we already have a lead.

Caption 37, I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone S1EP5 Misericordia - Part 4
Play Caption

I carabinieri are the military police force. If you are driving they can signal you to pull over to check your vehicle or documents. You can tell by the dark color of their vehicles, and by the insignia on their hats that they are different from i vigili (the local [traffic] policemen) or i poliziotti (policemen, state troopers).

Senza offesa, maresciallo, lo sa come vanno certe cose.

No offense officer, you know how some things go.

Caption 25, Chi m'ha visto film - Part 25
Play Caption

In a nutshell:

Il commissario is in charge of a police station or specific department. To address them: Signor commissario, signora commissario. What about commissaria? It does exist and is "correct," but is not used very often.

Un ispettore is involved in investigations or management. -To address them: Ispettore, ispettore + name

Un agente is a general uniformed officer, but might also not be in uniform. To address them: Agente, agente + name

Un maresciallo is an officer of i carabinieri (the military police). To address them: Maresciallo, maresciallo + name

Note that in Italian, these titles are not capitalized. In English, they are. The polite form should always be used in addressing law enforcement officers. See: Being Polite with Dare del Lei, What's the Story on Voi in the Singular?, Getting Someone’s Attention in Italian: Ascoltare and Sentire

What forms of address shall we look at next? Write to us at newsletter@yabla.com.