# A general question (about generals) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 18, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038 "2004-06-18T13:52:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038/1 "2004-06-18T13:52:51Z")
I am usually pretty good with military questions but this one had me stumped. I came up with some reasonable speculation but I couldn’t find the answer. In the American Army the general officer ranks are as follows: Brigadier General, Major General, Lieutenant General, General. Why is MG a lower rank than LTG when a LT is lower than a MAJ? I know it is patterned off of the British Army but thats not the full answer. I know that other militaries have those ranks reversed. My search only produced info on what the ranks are and not why they are in that order. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038/2 "2004-06-18T13:59:27Z")
Cecil covered it here: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_325a.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_325a.html) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038/3 "2004-06-18T14:11:01Z")
:smack: How the hell did you do that? I tried to search and came up with 20+ pages of threads that had nothing to do with the question. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038/4 "2004-06-18T14:23:48Z")
I did, at first just try a search for “General”, from which I got loads of pages. It’s just a case of adding as many relevant key words as you can. So “Lieutenant Major General” came up trumps. You think that you got a heap of links come up for that search, try searching for just “A”. Too much alcohol and one boring late night can make you do strange things. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038/5 "2004-06-18T14:50:18Z")
I was wondering what kind of voodoo you were using. I used the same keywords and came up with a ton of threads. Then I realized I only checked the MB and not the archive. How could I forget to see if Cecil answered the question? Thanks for the help. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038/6 "2004-06-18T14:57:19Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I know that other militaries have those ranks reversed. Not so much reversed as that the equivalent rank is “translated” differently. For instance, in the Brazilian Air Force, ALL the flag-officers are named “Brigadiers”. For the General Officers there are two main nomenclature systems, often combined: One is based on a germanic pattern, and is the source of the stylings used in the English-speaking world. The old Prussian sequence war: generalmajor - MG generalleutnant - LTG generaloberst - “colonel general” – notice how with this rank, now the parallel to the mid-grade sequence of Colonel, Lt-Colonel and Major becomes clear generalfeldmarschall - field marshal In modern times, this sequence (still used by Central and Eastern European militaries, and those who were influenced by them) includes the rank of “army general” or just-plain-general, either instead of colonel-general (thus completing the English set of general ranks) or in between colonel-general and field-marshal. Notice in this sequence, there is no “brigadier general”. You can see a remainder of that trait in the British Army, where Brigadier does not contain the title “general”, and the Japanese SDF which goes directly from colonel to MG. The other common ranking, is of apparently Napoleonic origin and goes strictly by the formation each level commands: general de brigade - general of a brigade general de division - general of a division general de corps d’armee - general of a corps general d’armee - general of an Army marechal - marshal This is used in France and in many militaries in Latin-language speaking countries and former French colonies. Militaries that use this model, further, often do not address the officer in between captain and LTCol as “major”, but as “commandant” or its equivalent. Most militaries have a modern hybrid of these systems to accommodate their historic circumstance. Spain, for instance, goes: Brigade General, Division General, _Lieutenant_ General, Army General, _Captain_ General – because _historically_ they had captain-generals and their subordinate lieutenant-generals, and as the army evolved and modernized the other ranks were inserted to fit a modern army organization. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-general-question-about-generals/251038/7 "2004-06-18T15:56:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I know that other militaries have those ranks reversed Oops, I was wrong. For some reason I thought the German Army had MG higher than LTG. [This link](http://www.fact-index.com/c/co/comparative_military_ranks.html) shows the comparative military ranks.