I agree that the comment about the church makes no sense, but I think I know where it's coming from.

I wonder if Elias's teacher was thinking about the widely-held belief that a city must have a cathedral? It's like one of those spurious logic puzzles. 

What's the difference between a town and a city? All cities have cathedrals. No towns have cathedrals.

So, if the place has a cathedral, it is must be a city. Right.

So if it has a church rather than a cathedral, it must be a town rather than a city? Right.

So only towns have churches? If it has a church, it must be town, not a city, then? No. That's nonsense.

Mike gave a good explanation, but I'll add to it.  Counties consist of multiple towns, and they have a government which is larger and more powerful than the local (town or city) government, but smaller and less powerful than the state and federal (country) government.

Districts come in different types.  For example, where I live, we have a forest preserve district, a park district, a public library district, a high school district, and a K-8 consolidated school district (and maybe more!)  They're used so we can elect officials for specific purposes.  The districts are mostly different sizes.  The forest preserve district is for the whole county.  The park district and the public library district are just my town.  The high school district covers my town and several others nearby.  And the K-8 consolidated school district covers my town and the one next to it.

"City" is one of several words to describe a town.  "City" is for a big town.  There is a legal requirement to decide whether something is considered a "city," but I don't know what it is.  Where I live, towns which are not big enough to be called cities are legally called "towns" or "villages."  In common usage, a city is a major urban area.  Sometimes a town will legally be a city, but no one will call it that.  For example, my university is located in DeKalb, IL.  The legal name of DeKalb is "The City of DeKalb."  But DeKalb is a farming town.  If it weren't for the university, it would be nothing but farms and a few locally-owned shops.  I would never call it a city.

I'm not sure exactly what a township is.  I know that my town is part of one, but I've never needed to know what it means.  So I agree with Mike, you don't need to worry about it.

I hope you didn't think I was meaning to be aggressive, Elias. Quite the opposite, in fact. I was trying to support your comment by showing that the point you made about the churches did indeed have a factual basis.

By the way. Mike, I realise that this isn't in any way relevant to the original question - but in Britain we have hundreds of tiny villages with mediaeval churches. And every single town in Britain has one or several churches. There's no such thing as a town that's too small to have a church. So it all makes perfect sense. I'm sure that when Mit asked her original question she didn't expect to hear about mediaeval churches or Dorothy's plum puddings, but that's the joy of italki, isn't it? You never know what you'll learn or end up talking about.

Hi Elias,

Sounds like a simple language difference thing. What you really meant was historically in England and not traditionally in the United States. 

The word traditionally here is used to mean that something has been done for a very long time and is still in practice. It can be a personal or group activity. I traditionally make plumb pudding every December or I have traditionally made plumb pudding or it's a tradition in my family to make plumb pudding. Traditionally, plumb pudding is a favored food for the holidays. 

Historically is something that happened at one time but no longer is happening. It's in the past. It's history. Historically another totally unrelated fruit to plums was used, but when plums were developed later they became the new tradition. 

(The sentences are all made up and not true... just used as examples of how to use the words).

What you say about the historical beginnings of the words is interesting. Don't be mad that what you said sounded like a joke to native speakers and we asked you about it. That just happens sometimes across language barriers. We have to ask questions in order to make sure we are understanding correctly when something doesn't seem to make sense to us. You weren't joking and now not only you, but hopefully others too, will be able to use the words historic and traditional with a more native finesse and we got an interesting lesson in the origins of the words. That's a good thing right? 

Mike, I did not start the discussion about the diffence between a town and a city. It was just one sentence in my answer question. The rest of my answer was aiming to try to explain the different types of administrative division. Dorothy reacted about that isolated sentence saying that I must be joking, and started the discussion (no offense though).

I answered to Mit's question, despite of not being an american citizen, because as a law student, I have studied this topic and I believe I know some about the administrative divisions.