Meaning & use
a private investigator
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A person who is paid to find out information or solve cases for private clients, not for the police.
Grammar: Countable: 'a private investigator', 'two private investigators'. The short form is 'PI' (plural 'PIs').
Patterns
- hire a private investigator
- a private investigator works for ...
- a private investigator to do something
She hired a private investigator to find her missing brother.
A private investigator often follows people and takes photographs for evidence.
The company used a private investigator to check the background of new employees.
Word forms
| plural | private investigators |
|---|---|
| abbreviation | PI |
Common combinations
- hire a private investigator
- They decided to hire a private investigator to look into the theft.
- a licensed private investigator
- You should only use a licensed private investigator.
- a private investigator's report
- The lawyer read the private investigator's report carefully.
- work as a private investigator
- After leaving the police force, he worked as a private investigator.
Synonyms and how they differ
- private detective
- This means the same thing and is very common, especially in fiction. 'Private investigator' sounds a little more official.
- PI
- This is just the abbreviation, used in informal speech and writing.
Word family
- investigate verb
- To try to find out the truth about something.
- investigation noun
- An official attempt to find out the facts about something.
Commonly confused: a private investigator or police officer?
a private investigator vs police officer
A police officer works for the government and has legal powers. A private investigator works for paying clients and has fewer powers.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'a private investigator' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The pattern is 'hire someone to do something' with the infinitive: 'to find'. Option 2 uses 'for finding', which is not the usual pattern here; option 3 uses 'to finding', which is wrong after 'hire'; option 4 is missing 'to' before 'find'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a private investigator”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.