少校(shào xiào) - major, lieutenant commander in Mandarin

少校 (shào xiào) is the rank of major in an army or air force, and lieutenant commander in a navy. It sits inside a tidy system: the 校 band runs 少校, 中校 and 上校 (major, lieutenant colonel, colonel), and the 尉 band below it runs 少尉, 中尉, 上尉. Learn the 少 and 中 and 上 ladder once and you can read every rank on the list.

Like English military ranks it works as a title in direct address, and Chinese puts it after a surname: 王少校 is Major Wang. It also takes 位 or 名 as its measure word when counted.

The trap is both characters. 少 here is shào, junior, not the everyday shǎo meaning "few", and there is no clue in the writing. 校 is xiào, the same reading as in 学校, and not the jiào of 校对. Say shǎo jiào and a Chinese listener will hear nothing they recognise.